Soldier likely to drop — almost dead — reveals pattern (7)
I believe the answer is:
paragon
'pattern' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'soldier likely to drop almost dead' is the wordplay.
'soldier likely to drop' becomes 'para' (a paratrooper drops from a plane).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'dead' becomes 'gone' (similar in meaning).
'gone' with its last letter taken away is 'gon'.
'para'+'gon'='PARAGON'
'reveals' is the link.
(Other definitions for paragon that I've seen before include "Exemplar" , "Perfect example of a quality" , "Very good example" , "Model of conduct" , "Perfect diamond" .)