Old way to get round staff? (3)
I believe the answer is:
rod
'staff?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'old way to get round' is the wordplay.
'old' becomes 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English).
'way' becomes 'rd' (**).
'to get round' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'o' going inside 'rd' is 'ROD'.
(Other definitions for rod that I've seen before include "Stick - measure" , "Imperial measure" , "Rigid stick" , "Little boy" , "Cane - shaft" .)