One engaged in the actual job of abstraction (8)
I believe the answer is:
thievery
'job of abstraction' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'one engaged in the actual' is the wordplay.
'one' becomes 'I' (Roman numeral).
'engaged in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'actual' becomes 'very' (synonyms).
'i' placed inside 'the' is 'thie'.
'thie'+'very'='THIEVERY'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for thievery that I've seen before include "immoral practice" , "plagiarism?" , "Knocking off" , "Act of stealing" , "criminal activity" .)