Frenzied excitement of a figure in free motion (5)

I believe the answer is:

fever

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'frenzied excitement' is the definition.
'fever' can be an answer for 'excitement' (fever is a kind of excitement). I'm unsure of the 'frenzied' bit.

'a figure in free motion' is the wordplay.
'a figure' becomes 'v' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'motion' is an anagram indicator.
'free' with letters rearranged gives 'feer'.
'v' inserted within 'feer' is 'FEVER'.

'of' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for fever that I've seen before include "A rise in the temperature from infection" , "eg Malaria" , "Reason for temperature" , "1950s hit for 11" , "State of high excitement" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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