A large number of free handouts (8)
I believe the answer is:
thousand
'a large number' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'free handouts' is the wordplay.
'free' indicates an anagram.
'handouts' is an anagram of 'THOUSAND'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for thousand that I've seen before include "See 19 Across" , "-- Island dressing" , "quite a lot" , "cube" , "One and three zeros" .)