Pass over American in bar (7)
I believe the answer is:
suspend
'bar' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'pass over american' is the wordplay.
'pass' becomes 'spend' (synonyms).
'over' indicates putting letters inside.
'american' becomes 'US' (United States).
'spend' going around 'us' is 'SUSPEND'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for suspend that I've seen before include "Delay" , "Put in abeyance" , "Hold up or dangle" , "Bring to a temporary halt" , "Fail to hit" .)