Abandoned South American stopped ringing (7)
I believe the answer is:
disused
'abandoned' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'south american stopped ringing' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'south' could be 's' (synonyms) and 's' is found in the answer.
'american' could be 'us' (abbreviation for United States) and 'us' is present in the answer.
'stopped' could be 'died' and 'died' is located in the leftover letters.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for disused that I've seen before include "Idle" , "Eg, like abandoned railways" , "No longer observed or practised" , "Derelict" , "one's no longer employable?" .)