Oriental vessels crossing river for factory (5)
I believe the answer is:
works
'factory' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'oriental vessels crossing river' is the wordplay.
'oriental vessels' becomes 'woks'.
'crossing' is an insertion indicator.
'river' becomes 'r'.
'woks' enclosing 'r' is 'WORKS'.
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for works that I've seen before include "Acts: the > opera" , "Plants; operates" , "Factory; has a job" , "Functions" , "Employs physical or mental effort" .)