Crossword Genius

New piece of ground that's acquired for buttons (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

nacre

'that's acquired for buttons' is the definition.
(buttons may be made of nacre or mother-of-pearl)

'new piece of ground' is the wordplay.
'new' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation eg NT for New Testament).
'piece of ground' becomes 'acre' (a piece of land).
'n'+'acre'='NACRE'

(Other definitions for nacre that I've seen before include "Mother of pearl" , "Pearl's mum" , "Constituent of inlay furniture" , "Mother-of-pearl from shellfish" , "inside of shell" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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