Misled a number of Germans (4)
I believe the answer is:
lied
'misled' 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 an association between them that I don't see?
'a number of germans' is the wordplay.
'a number' becomes 'L' (fifty in Roman numerals).
'of germans' becomes 'ied' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'l'+'ied'='LIED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lied that I've seen before include "Made up a story" , "Did not speak the truth" , "Song in Berlin" , "Art song - told porkies" , "Produced pork pie" .)