Hold up American during pay-out (7)
I believe the answer is:
suspend
'hold up' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'american during pay-out' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'us'.
'during' is an insertion indicator.
'pay-out' becomes 'spend'.
'us' placed into 'spend' is 'SUSPEND'.
(Other definitions for suspend that I've seen before include "Keep in abeyance" , "Hang freely" , "Dangle or postpone" , "Ban" , "Bar temporarily" .)