Give appearance to one left in grand surroundings (4)
I believe the answer is:
gild
'give appearance' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how they can define each other.
'one left in grand surroundings' is the wordplay.
'one left' becomes 'L' (common abbreviation).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'grand surroundings' becomes 'gid' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'l' going inside 'gid' is 'GILD'.
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for gild that I've seen before include "Decorate with gold leaf" , "Cover thinly with gold" , "Coat in gold" , "Cover with gold leaf" .)