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.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'surgical pioneer?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'surgical pioneer?' could be 'lister' (Joseph Lister pioneered antiseptic surgery) and 'lister' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'bed' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
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" .)