Model free to waste time meeting poet without family (8)
I believe the answer is:
exemplar
'model' is the definition.
(I know that model can be written as exemplar)
'free to waste time meeting poet without family' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'without' could be 'ex' (Latin) and 'ex' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for exemplar that I've seen before include "Something serving as an appropriate model" , "Typical specimen" , "A good model or type" , "A model or instance" , "Ideal model" .)