Weapon I let the tots play about with (8)
I believe the answer is:
stiletto
'weapon' is the definition.
(stiletto is a kind of weapon)
'i let the tots play about with' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'i' is within the answer.
an anagram of 'let' is 'tle' which is located in the remaining letters.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stiletto that I've seen before include "Long dagger" , "Slender dagger, heel" , "Dagger with slender blade" , "Small dagger with a tapered blade" , "Dagger; tapered heel" .)