Novelty pub gets plaudits (10)
I believe the answer is:
innovation
'novelty' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'pub gets plaudits' is the wordplay.
'pub' becomes 'inn' (I've seen this before).
'gets' says to put letters next to each other.
'plaudits' becomes 'ovation' (I've seen this before).
'inn'+'ovation'='INNOVATION'
(Other definitions for innovation that I've seen before include "Something new" , "original" , "What's new" , "Something introduced as a novelty" , "New product" .)