Cringe at sloppy serving (8)
I believe the answer is:
catering
'serving' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'cringe at sloppy' is the wordplay.
'sloppy' indicates anagramming the letters.
'cringe'+'at'='cringeat'
'cringeat' with letters rearranged gives 'CATERING'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for catering that I've seen before include "Supplying food and drink" , "activity at event" , "Providing food, entertainment etc." , "Providing food and drink" , "provision of food" .)