Appropriate to turn up before end of French colonial meal (6)
I believe the answer is:
tiffin
'colonial meal' is the definition.
'tiffin' can be an answer for 'meal' (tiffin is a kind of meal). I'm not sure about the 'colonial' bit.
'appropriate to turn up before end of french' is the wordplay.
'appropriate' becomes 'fit' (similar in meaning).
'to turn up' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'before end of french' becomes 'fin' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'fit' reversed gives 'tif'.
'tif'+'fin'='TIFFIN'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tiffin that I've seen before include "Lunch (British Raj)" , "Light midday meal in India" , "Snack, light meal (dated)" , "Light (Indian) meal" , "(Anglo Indian) lunch" .)