Crossword Genius

Arrest American, part with shackles (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

suspend

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'arrest' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'american part with shackles' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'us' (abbreviation for United States).
'part with' becomes 'spend' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'shackles' is an insertion indicator (shackle can mean imprison).
'us' going within 'spend' is 'SUSPEND'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for suspend that I've seen before include "Dangle or postpone" , "Hang freely" , "Remove temporarily from office - hang" , "Temporarily render inoperative" , "Interrupt" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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