Covers up church backing scam and losing nothing (8)
I believe the answer is:
conceals
'covers up' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with perception as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'church backing scam and losing nothing' is the wordplay.
'church' becomes 'CE' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'backing' says to put letters next to each other.
'scam' becomes 'con' (both can mean a fraudulent scheme).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'losing nothing' becomes 'als' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ce' put after 'con' is 'conce'.
'conce'+'als'='CONCEALS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for conceals that I've seen before include "Hides, places out of sight" , "Hides, keeps secret" .)