Crossword Genius

Employs American round outskirts of Seattle (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

uses

'employs' is the definition.
('use' can be a synonym of 'employ')

'american round outskirts of seattle' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'us'.
'round' is a reversal indicator.
'outskirts of' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'seattle' with its centre taken out is 'se'.
'se' in reverse letter order is 'es'.
'us'+'es'='USES'

(Other definitions for uses that I've seen before include "Puts into service" , "What an employer does" , "Utilises" , "deployments" , "Sues (anag.)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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