Frowning at American soldier gadding about with clowns (8)
I believe the answer is:
scowling
'frowning' is the definition.
(scowling is a kind of frowning)
'at american soldier gadding about with clowns' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'at' could be 'in' (synonymous in some cases - eg at school, in school) and 'in' is located in the answer.
'about' could be 'c' (abbreviation for 'circa') and 'c' is found in the answer.
'with' could be 'w' (short for with) and 'w' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for scowling that I've seen before include "glowering" , "looking unhappy?" , "Lowering" , "looking displeased" , "Frowning with displeasure" .)