Thus little woman needs vessel for short stay (7)
I believe the answer is:
sojourn
'short stay' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'thus little woman needs vessel' is the wordplay.
'thus' becomes 'so' ('so' can be a synonym of 'thus').
'little woman' becomes 'jo' (character from Little Women).
'needs' says to put letters next to each other.
'vessel' becomes 'urn' (urn is a kind of vessel).
'so'+'jo'+'urn'='SOJOURN'
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for sojourn that I've seen before include "Temporary residence" , "Short stay" , "Stopover" , "A temporary stay somewhere" , "Relaxed, tolerant" .)