Patsy posed without a cloak on leave (9)
I believe the answer is:
scapegoat
'patsy' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'posed without a cloak on leave' is the wordplay.
'posed' becomes 'sat' (posed or sat for an artist).
'without' is an insertion indicator ('without' can be similar in meaning to 'outside').
'a cloak' becomes 'cape' (cape is a kind of cloak).
'on leave' becomes 'go' (to go is to depart or leave. I am not sure about the 'on' bit.).
'cape'+'go'='capego'
'sat' going around 'capego' is 'SCAPEGOAT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for scapegoat that I've seen before include "one carrying the can" , "Fall guy" , "One who bears the blame for others" , "One who takes the blame for others" , "Someone to blame" .)