Peers irrationally around for an amount of money, and takes it! (8)
I believe the answer is:
presumes
'peers irrationally' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their -s form, I don't see how one could define the other.
'around for an amount of money and takes it' is the wordplay.
'around' is an insertion indicator.
'for an' becomes 'pres' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'amount of money' becomes 'sum' (synonyms).
'and takes' says to put letters next to each other.
'it' becomes 'e' ('e' can mean 'electronic' which is similar to 'IT').
'sum'+'e'='sume'
'pres' enclosing 'sume' is 'PRESUMES'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for presumes that I've seen before include "... supposes" , "Takes to be the case" , "takes liberties" .)