Suitable honour for rising figure (5)
I believe the answer is:
motif
'figure' is the definition.
(I know that motif is a type of figure)
'suitable honour for rising' is the wordplay.
'suitable' becomes 'fit' (similar in meaning).
'honour for' becomes 'om' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'rising' says the letters should be written in reverse (going up in a down clue).
'fit'+'om'='fitom'
'fitom' reversed gives 'MOTIF'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for motif that I've seen before include "decoration" , "Recurrent symbol" , "Single design - theme" , "Theme in a work of art" , "Recurring pattern" .)