Rings friends out East (5)
I believe the answer is:
peals
'rings' is the definition.
(pealing is a kind of ringing)
'friends out east' is the wordplay.
'friends' becomes 'pals' (pal is a kind of friend).
'out' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'east' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'pals' placed around 'e' is 'PEALS'.
(Other definitions for peals that I've seen before include "Lapse in bell sounds" , "Loud sounds of bells or laughter" , "Leaps about with bursts of laughter" .)