Sticky excess in America holds nothing (9)
I believe the answer is:
glutinous
'sticky' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'excess in america holds nothing' is the wordplay.
'excess' becomes 'glut' (glut can mean an excess of something).
'america' becomes 'us' (United States).
'holds' indicates putting letters inside.
'nothing' becomes 'O' (O resembles 0).
'in'+'us'='inus'
'inus' going around 'o' is 'inous'.
'glut'+'inous'='GLUTINOUS'
(Other definitions for glutinous that I've seen before include "Sticky" , "not easy to shake off?" .)