Singular spicy dishes can give you runs (8)
I believe the answer is:
scurries
'runs' is the definition.
(scurrying is a kind of running)
'singular spicy dishes' is the wordplay.
'singular' becomes 's' (abbreviation sometimes used in dictionaries).
'spicy dishes' becomes 'curries'.
's'+'curries'='SCURRIES'
'can give you' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for scurries that I've seen before include "Moves hurriedly in cruisers" , "Scampers" , "runs" .)