Scene changed with sailor getting vacancy (7)
I believe the answer is:
absence
'vacancy' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'scene changed with sailor' is the wordplay.
'changed' indicates an anagram.
'with' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'sailor' becomes 'ab' (abbreviation for able seaman).
'scene' is an anagram of 'sence'.
'sence' enclosing 'ab' is 'ABSENCE'.
'getting' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for absence that I've seen before include "Time off" , "Need" , "Seen cab (anag.)" , "Abstraction" , "State of being away" .)