Dodgy American quietly entering cult? (7)
I believe the answer is:
suspect
'dodgy' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'american quietly entering cult?' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'US' (abbreviation for United States).
'quietly' becomes 'p' (p for piano and quiet).
'entering' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'cult?' becomes 'sect' (religious sect).
'us'+'p'='usp'
'usp' inserted within 'sect' is 'SUSPECT'.
(Other definitions for suspect that I've seen before include "smell a rat produces" , "Distrust, have doubts about" , "Believe to be guilty, but without proof" , "Believe (someone) guilty" , "Have misgivings about" .)