Figurative expression is right in excellent English (5)
I believe the answer is:
trope
'figurative expression' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'right in excellent english' is the wordplay.
'right' becomes 'r' (common abbreviation).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'excellent' becomes 'top' (top can mean the best).
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation).
'r' put inside 'top' is 'trop'.
'trop'+'e'='TROPE'
'is' is the link.
(Other definitions for trope that I've seen before include "Figurative use of a word, metaphor" , "Figure of speech - or pet (anag)" , "metaphor, perhaps" , "Recurrent theme, motif" , "Word or expression used in a figurative way" .)