Refined female visiting Channel Islands and California (9)
I believe the answer is:
classical
'refined' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'female visiting channel islands and california' is the wordplay.
'female' becomes 'lass' (lass is a kind of female**).
'visiting' indicates putting letters inside.
'channel islands' becomes 'ci'.
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'california' becomes 'cal'.
'lass' placed inside 'ci' is 'classi'.
'classi'+'cal'='CLASSICAL'
(Other definitions for classical that I've seen before include "from 1750 to 1800" , "Like some music" , "Accepted as standard" , "from an earlier time" , "Like ancient Greek or Roman art" .)