Character shown by country missing out on first, bronze served up (6)
I believe the answer is:
nature
'character' is the definition.
(I know that character can be written as nature)
'country missing out on first bronze served up' is the wordplay.
'country missing out' becomes 'u' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'on' becomes 're' ('on' can be mean 'with reference to').
'first' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'bronze' becomes 'tan' (both can mean to get a sun tan).
'served up' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'tan' written backwards gives 'nat'.
'u'+'re'='ure'
'ure' put after 'nat' is 'NATURE'.
'shown by' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nature that I've seen before include "Creation - character" , "Disposition, temperament" , "sort of reserve" , "The external, untouched world" , "It abhors a vacuum, according to Aristotle" .)