Extremely safe saw is made quieter (7)
I believe the answer is:
sedated
'made quieter' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are past participle verbs, I cannot see how one could define the other.
'extremely safe saw' is the wordplay.
'extremely' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (only the extremes of the word are used).
'saw' becomes 'dated' (to date someone is to see them romantically).
'safe' with its centre taken out is 'se'.
'se'+'dated'='SEDATED'
'is' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sedated that I've seen before include "Drugged" , "Calmed with drugs" , "Given calming drugs" , "Dead set (anag) - tranquillised" , "Tranquillized" .)