Rainbow-coloured flag briefly coming down (10)
I believe the answer is:
iridescent
'rainbow-coloured' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'flag briefly coming down' is the wordplay.
'flag' becomes 'iris' (type of iris flower).
'briefly' means to remove the last letter.
'coming down' becomes 'descent' (process of descending).
'iris' with its final letter taken off is 'iri'.
'iri'+'descent'='IRIDESCENT'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for iridescent that I've seen before include "shimmering with colour" , "shot" , "Shimmering with rainbow colours (anag of 1 across, 9 and 23)" , "Eye-catching" , "Sparkling" .)