Representative limbos extremely carefully at sea (8)
I believe the answer is:
symbolic
'representative' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'limbos extremely carefully at sea' is the wordplay.
'extremely' means to remove the middle letters.
'at sea' is an anagram indicator.
'carefully' with its centre removed is 'cy'.
'limbos'+'cy'='limboscy'
'limboscy' anagrammed gives 'SYMBOLIC'.
(Other definitions for symbolic that I've seen before include "illustration" , "Representative; token" , "Meaningful" , "Having special meaning, suggesting something" , "Illustrative" .)