Meaning to accommodate American priest, despite anxiety (8)
I believe the answer is:
suspense
'anxiety' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'meaning to accommodate american priest' is the wordplay.
'meaning' becomes 'sense' ('sense' can be a synonym of 'meaning'**).
'to accommodate' indicates putting letters inside.
'american' becomes 'us'.
'priest' becomes 'p' (ecclesiastical abbreviation).
'us'+'p'='usp'
'sense' enclosing 'usp' is 'SUSPENSE'.
'despite' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for suspense that I've seen before include "State of anxiety or excitement" , "Nervous anticipation" , "Alfred Hitchcock was the master of it" , "feature of exciting fiction?" , "Nervous uncertainty; cessation" .)