American in Lincoln is hurt (5)
I believe the answer is:
abuse
'is hurt' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'american in lincoln' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'us'.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'lincoln' becomes 'abe'.
'us' going within 'abe' is 'ABUSE'.
(Other definitions for abuse that I've seen before include "Deceit" , "Exploit" , "Malign" , "Subject to verbal assault and insults" , "Address insultingly" .)