Practises American ways (4)
I believe the answer is:
uses
'practises' is the definition.
(use is a kind of practise)
'american ways' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'US' (abbreviation for United States).
'ways' becomes 'es' (east and south - two directions).
'us'+'es'='USES'
(Other definitions for uses that I've seen before include "Takes (drugs)" , "Exercises" , "deployments" , "Employments" , "Functions, applications" .)