Retiring personal assistant gets colourful ring (4)
I believe the answer is:
iris
'colourful ring' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'retiring personal assistant gets' is the wordplay.
'retiring' is a reversal indicator.
'personal assistant' becomes 'ri' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'gets' becomes 'is' (I've seen this in other clues).
'ri' backwards is 'ir'.
'ir'+'is'='IRIS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for iris that I've seen before include "Rainbow-goddess" , "Flag - flower - girl" , "Ms Murdoch" , "Plant with sword-shaped leaves" , "pupil's governor" .)