Meet nitpicking accountant British and American separately ignored (9)
I believe the answer is:
encounter
'meet' is the definition.
(synonyms)
I don't understand how the rest of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for encounter that I've seen before include "Struggle" , "Meet by chance or enexpectedly" , "Meet; confrontation" , "Run into - combat" , "Come upon, meet" .)