Slander American woman, European female intervening (6)
I believe the answer is:
defame
'slander' is the definition.
(I know that slander can be written as defame)
'american woman european female intervening' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'american' could be 'am' (abbreviation in some contexts) and 'am' is found within the answer.
'woman' could be 'de' and 'de' is found in the answer.
'european' could be 'e' (abbreviation e.g. EU) and 'e' is found in the answer.
'female' could be 'f' (abbreviation) and 'f' is present 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 defame that I've seen before include "Asperse" , "Attack someone's good name" , "libel" , "Attack good reputation, speak ill of" , "Malign" .)