Crossword Genius

Mice running around sink returned with English plague (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

epidemic

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

'plague' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'mice running around sink returned with english' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'mice' is 'emic' which is located in the answer.
'english' could be 'e' (abbreviation) and 'e' is present 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 epidemic that I've seen before include "Outbreak of disease which spreads rapidly" , "Prevailing" , "Fast food item" , "health emergency" , "Disease affecting many in a population at the same time" .)

I've seen this clue in The Hindu.
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