Pub with short lease, empty (6)
I believe the answer is:
barren
'empty' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'pub with short lease' is the wordplay.
'pub' becomes 'bar' (I've seen this before).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'lease' becomes 'rent' ('rent' can be a synonym of 'lease').
'rent' with its last letter taken away is 'ren'.
'bar'+'ren'='BARREN'
(Other definitions for barren that I've seen before include "Unable to bear young" , "Infertile, unproductive" , "Unable to bear fruit, not fertile" , "'Desolate, fallow (6)'" , "Sterile" .)