Crossword Genius

Entrance to sacred ground in pieces (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

smashed

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'in pieces' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'entrance to sacred ground' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'ground' could be 'mashed' ('mash' can be a synonym of 'grind') and 'mashed' is located in the answer.
A single letter 's' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for smashed that I've seen before include "Drunk (as a broken bottle?)" , "Broken in pieces" , "bust?" , "Broke into sharp pieces" , "Broke into small pieces" .)

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