In retirement try to accept modification of iron’s compounds (9)
I believe the answer is:
kerosines
'compounds' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both substances as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'in retirement try to accept modification of iron's' is the wordplay.
'in retirement' says the letters should be written backwards (retire can mean to go back or backwards).
'try' becomes 'seek' (synonyms).
'to accept' is an insertion indicator.
'modification of' indicates an anagram (I've seen 'modification' mean this).
'seek' reversed gives 'kees'.
'irons' with letters rearranged gives 'rosin'.
'kees' placed around 'rosin' is 'KEROSINES'.
Can you help me to learn more?