Crossword Genius

The pest is given a leg up, mistakenly (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

plague

'the pest' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'given a leg up mistakenly' is the wordplay.
'given' says to put letters next to each other.
'mistakenly' indicates an anagram.
'a'+'leg'='aleg'
'aleg' put after 'up' is 'upaleg'.
'upaleg' with letters rearranged gives 'PLAGUE'.

'is' is the link.

(Other definitions for plague that I've seen before include "Epidemic diseases with high mortality" , "large scale affliction" , "Swarm of insects" , "Pestilence transmitted by rat fleas" , "Deadly contagious disease, or a swarm of locusts" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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