Excited by the dire chaos following a false start (5)
I believe the answer is:
fired
'excited' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'the dire chaos following a false start' is the wordplay.
'chaos' indicates anagramming the letters.
'following' says to put letters next to each other.
'start' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'false' is 'f'.
'dire' is an anagram of 'ired'.
'ired' after 'f' is 'FIRED'.
'by' is the link.
(Other definitions for fired that I've seen before include "Encouraged" , "with P45?" , "sent up in flames" , "Dismissed or ignited" , "got rid of" .)