Sitting around empty cottage, showing withdrawal (9)
I believe the answer is:
secession
'withdrawal' is the definition.
(I know that withdrawal can be written as secession)
'sitting around empty cottage' is the wordplay.
'sitting' becomes 'session' (eg a parliamentary session).
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'empty' means to remove the middle letters.
'cottage' with its middle taken out is 'ce'.
'session' going around 'ce' is 'SECESSION'.
'showing' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for secession that I've seen before include "form of schism" , "The leaving of a federation" .)