There is the phone the tots were playing with (2,3,4)
I believe the answer is:
on the spot
'there' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adverbs. Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'the phone the tots were playing with' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found in the answer.
'playing' could be 'on' (on can mean playing or performing) and 'on' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'is' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for on the spot that I've seen before include "At a particular place of action" , "In difficulty" , "straight away" , "Present at an event" , "without delay" .)