Account expense journalist challenged (8)
I believe the answer is:
accosted
'challenged' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with communicating as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'account expense journalist' is the wordplay.
'account' becomes 'ac'.
'expense' becomes 'cost' (cost is a kind of expense).
'journalist' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'ac'+'cost'+'ed'='ACCOSTED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for accosted that I've seen before include "Acted as solicitor" , "Approached and spoke to" , "Approached boldly and aggressively" , "Approached rudely" , "Approached boldly, solicited" .)