Crossword Genius

Believe house comes with vacant grounds (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

hold

'believe' is the definition.
('hold' can be a synonym of 'believe')

'house comes with vacant grounds' is the wordplay.
'house' becomes 'ho' (abbreviation for house).
'comes with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'vacant' means to remove the middle letters.
'grounds' becomes 'land'.
'land' with its middle removed is 'ld'.
'ho'+'ld'='HOLD'

(Other definitions for hold that I've seen before include "Cargo area of ship" , "Maintain" , "Ship's cargo area" , "Ship's storage area" , "defend successfully" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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