King’s collecting ground rent, hope to acquire skills (5,3,5)
I believe the answer is:
learn the ropes
'acquire skills' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'king's collecting ground rent hope' is the wordplay.
'king's' becomes 'lears' (King Lear).
'collecting' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'ground' is an anagram indicator ('grind' the letters into a new form).
'rent'+'hope'='renthope'
'renthope' is an anagram of 'ntherope'.
'lears' enclosing 'ntherope' is 'LEARN THE ROPES'.
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for learn the ropes that I've seen before include "Master essential techniques" , "Train for a new role" , "as any trainee bellringer must?" , "Study how to do a job" .)