Skulking about becoming low at church in gloomy capital (8)
I believe the answer is:
mooching
'skulking about' is the definition.
'mooching' can be an answer for 'skulking' (mooch and skulk can both mean to sneak around). I am not certain of the 'about' bit.
'low at church in gloomy capital' is the wordplay.
'low' becomes 'moo' (both can mean to make a cow noise).
'at' says to put letters next to each other.
'church' becomes 'ch' (abbreviation on maps etc).
'capital' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'gloomy' is 'g'.
'moo'+'ch'+'in'+'g'='MOOCHING'
'becoming' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mooching that I've seen before include "Hanging around, doing nothing in particular" , "Listlessly loitering" .)