Starts to etch motif on flat board (7)

I believe the answer is:

emplane

'board' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'starts to etch motif on flat' is the wordplay.
'starts to' suggests taking the first letters.
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'flat' becomes 'plane' (synonyms).
The first letters of 'etch motif' is 'em'.
'em'+'plane'='EMPLANE'

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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