Berated retired surgical pioneer? (9)
I believe the answer is:
blistered
'berated retired surgical pioneer?' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with communicating as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'surgical pioneer?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'surgical pioneer?' could be 'lister' (Joseph Lister pioneered antiseptic surgery) and 'lister' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'bed' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for blistered that I've seen before include "troubled by burns" , "developed a reaction to a burn?" , "having worn ill-fitting shoes?" , "Severely rebuked" , "Like burnt skin, perhaps" .)