Peruse a red composition (4)
I believe the answer is:
read
'peruse' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a red composition' is the wordplay.
'composition' indicates an anagram.
'a'+'red'='ared'
'ared' is an anagram of 'READ'.
(Other definitions for read that I've seen before include "Absorbed (written text)" , "Con" , "Interpret (text)" , "Perused" , "Interpret writing" .)