Heading off armed, made a sally (7)
I believe the answer is:
quipped
'made a sally' is the definition.
The definition and answer 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?
'heading off armed' is the wordplay.
'heading off' means to remove the first letter.
'armed' becomes 'equipped' (similar in meaning).
'equipped' with its first letter taken off is 'QUIPPED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for quipped that I've seen before include "Made joke" , "Joked" .)