Answer found in search for plague (5)
I believe the answer is:
haunt
'plague' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'answer found in search' is the wordplay.
'answer' becomes 'a' (abbreviation eg in Q and A).
'found in' indicates putting letters inside.
'search' becomes 'hunt' ('hunt' can be a synonym of 'search').
'a' placed inside 'hunt' is 'HAUNT'.
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for haunt that I've seen before include "A favourite place" , "Keep appearing" , "retreat" , "Visit in spectral form" , "Unhat (anag.)" .)