President carrying small books away (6)
I believe the answer is:
absent
'away' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'president carrying small books' is the wordplay.
'president' becomes 'Abe' (Abraham (Abe) Lincoln).
'carrying' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'books' becomes 'NT' (New Testament).
'abe' enclosing 's' is 'abse'.
'abse'+'nt'='ABSENT'
(Other definitions for absent that I've seen before include "Not at a specified place" , "lack of attention" , "elsewhere" , "nowhere to be seen" , "Missing or dreamy" .)