Crossword Genius

Intense fear, I say, before nip came back from this turtle (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

terrapin

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'this turtle' is the definition.
(terrapin is a kind of turtle)

'intense fear i say before nip came back from' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'i' could be 'a' and 'a' is present in the answer.
an anagram of 'nip' is 'pin' which is located in the answer.
'from' could be 'e' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'e' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for terrapin that I've seen before include "Water tortoise" , "Swimmer" , "Hardback" , "Partner I found for freshwater tortoise" , "Chelonian reptile" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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