Crying, American buries nurses (2,5)
I believe the answer is:
in tears
'crying' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'american buries nurses' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'buries' becomes 'inters' ('inter' can be a synonym of 'bury').
'nurses' is an insertion indicator (nurse can mean to hold onto or harbour).
'a' going into 'inters' is 'IN TEARS'.
(Other definitions for in tears that I've seen before include "sadly" , "Very unhappy" , "Crying" , "Maudlin" , "Weeping" .)