Month before an attempt to acquire new figure (7)
I believe the answer is:
octagon
'figure' is the definition.
(type of geometrical figure)
'month before an attempt to acquire new' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'month' could be 'oct' (abbreviation for October) and 'oct' is located in the answer.
'before' could be 'ago' (eg years ago means year before) and 'ago' is located in the answer.
'new' could be 'n' (common abbreviation eg NT for New Testament) and 'n' is located in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for octagon that I've seen before include "Shape of a square with the corners cut off" , "Geometric figure with eight sides" , "An eight-sided polygon" , "Eight-sided shape" , "Figure of many sides" .)