Oriental net assets regularly disappearing (4)
I believe the answer is:
east
'oriental' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'net assets regularly disappearing' is the wordplay.
'regularly disappearing' indicates alternate letters (letters removed at regular intervals).
'net'+'assets'='netassets'
The alternate letters of 'netassets' are 'EAST'.
(Other definitions for east that I've seen before include "4 dn 17 dn" , "One regularly holding hands" , "Compass point at 90 degrees" , "Oriental lands" , "Player in deal" .)