Girl secures ring in the end (4)
I believe the answer is:
goal
'the end' is the definition.
(end can mean one's purpose or goal)
'girl secures ring' is the wordplay.
'girl' becomes 'gal' (synonyms).
'secures' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'ring' becomes 'o' (letter resembling a ring).
'gal' enclosing 'o' is 'GOAL'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for goal that I've seen before include "Objective, purpose" , "A score in soccer" , "Objective or score" , "posts and bar" , "... destination (at football?)" .)