Occupy one's time in ship with one's gifts (6)
I believe the answer is:
skills
'occupy one's time' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'ship with one's gifts' is the wordplay.
'ship' becomes 'ss'.
'with' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'one's gifts' becomes 'kill' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ss' enclosing 'kill' is 'SKILLS'.
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for skills that I've seen before include "facilities" , "Special aptitudes or abilities" , "Working abilities acquired through practice and training" , "Talents, crafts or accomplishments" , "Talents, aptitudes" .)