American animal circles close to Washington (4)
I believe the answer is:
yank
'american' is the definition.
(Yank can informally mean an American)
'animal circles close to washington' is the wordplay.
'animal' becomes 'yak' (I have seen 'Tibetan animal ' mean 'yak' so perhaps 'animal' could also mean 'yak').
'circles' indicates putting letters inside.
'close to' indicates one should take the final letters (the 'close' to the word).
The last letter of 'washington' is 'n'.
'yak' going around 'n' is 'YANK'.
(Other definitions for yank that I've seen before include "Jerk, pull suddenly" , "Pull sharply" , "Sharp movement" , "American - jerk" , "Sharp tug" .)