Area around old lake on river's like a ring of colour (7)
I believe the answer is:
areolar
'ring of colour' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are adjectives, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'area around old lake on river's' is the wordplay.
'around' indicates putting letters inside.
'old' becomes 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English).
'lake' becomes 'L' (geographical abbreviation).
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'river' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'o'+'l'='ol'
'area' going around 'ol' is 'areola'.
'areola'+'r'='AREOLAR'
'like a' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for areolar that I've seen before include "of circular area" , "about a pupil" .)