Employed editor from America (4)
I believe the answer is:
used
'employed' is the definition.
('use' can be a synonym of 'employ')
'editor from america' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'editor' could be 'ed' (abbreviation) and 'ed' is found in the answer.
'america' could be 'us' (United States) and 'us' is located in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for used that I've seen before include "Accustomed - exploited" , "Second-hand - not wasted" , "Previously owned by another" , "Hand-me-down" , "Manipulated American editor" .)