The status of somebody without a seat (8)
I believe the answer is:
standing
'a seat' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'the status of somebody without' is the wordplay.
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'status of somebody' becomes 'sanding' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'without' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
't' inserted within 'sanding' is 'STANDING'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for standing that I've seen before include "Upright" , "type of committee" , "Status - on one's feet" , "Still in" , "Prestige" .)