Country, short in youth (3)
I believe the answer is:
cub
'youth' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'country short' is the wordplay.
'country' becomes 'cuba' (Cuba is an example).
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'cuba' with its last letter taken off is 'CUB'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for cub that I've seen before include "Young one" , "Inexperienced reporter" , "Young lion or fox" , "Youngster, trainee" , "Whelp" .)