Urbane American returns greeting (5)
I believe the answer is:
suave
'urbane' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'american returns greeting' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'us'.
'returns' says the letters should be written backwards.
'greeting' becomes 'ave' (I've seen this before).
'us' backwards is 'su'.
'su'+'ave'='SUAVE'
(Other definitions for suave that I've seen before include "Charming, confident" , "Urbane and sophisticated" , "Svelte" , "Superficially polite" , "Charming and sophisticated though insincere" .)