America, say, brought up tradition (5)
I believe the answer is:
usage
'tradition' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'america say brought up' is the wordplay.
'america' becomes 'usa' (synonyms).
'say' becomes 'eg' (short for 'exempli gratia', 'for example' in Latin).
'brought up' says the letters should be written backwards (in a down clue, letters go up).
'eg' written backwards gives 'ge'.
'usa'+'ge'='USAGE'
(Other definitions for usage that I've seen before include "Common practice" , "Usual practice" , "Habitual custom" , "etiquette" , "Accepted or habitual practice" .)