Rejected cop returning as promised (9)
I believe the answer is:
disavowed
'rejected' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with communicating as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'cop returning as promised' is the wordplay.
'cop' becomes 'di' (detective inspector).
'returning' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'promised' becomes 'vowed' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'as' in reverse letter order is 'sa'.
'di'+'sa'+'vowed'='DISAVOWED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for disavowed that I've seen is " Refused to acknowledge".)