Something dangerous I allowed the tots to play about with (8)
I believe the answer is:
stiletto
'something dangerous i allowed the' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'tots to play about with' is the wordplay.
'to play' indicates an anagram.
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'with' becomes 'tile' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'tots' anagrammed gives 'stto'.
'stto' placed around 'tile' is 'STILETTO'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stiletto that I've seen before include "Thin dagger; heel" , "Long thin knife" , "Dagger with slender blade" , "dangerous weapon" , "part of boot?" .)