Ed Davis cleverly gave warning (7)
I believe the answer is:
advised
'gave warning' 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?
'ed davis cleverly' is the wordplay.
'cleverly' is an anagram indicator.
'ed'+'davis'='eddavis'
'eddavis' anagrammed gives 'ADVISED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for advised that I've seen before include "Sensible; recommended (a course of action)" , "Did guide" , "Counselled" , "Gave guidance to" , "Notified" .)