A large scythe has been mislaid, so live without it (8)

'been mislaid so live without it' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'a large scythe' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' is present in the answer.
'large' could be 'l' (eg in clothes sizes) and 'l' is found in the answer.
an anagram of 'scythe' is 'chstey' which is within the remaining letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'has' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?