Retardant nearly worked as described (8)
I believe the answer is:
narrated
'described' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with communicating as well as being past participle verbs.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'retardant nearly worked' is the wordplay.
'nearly' means to remove the last letter.
'worked' indicates an anagram.
'retardant' with its final letter taken away is 'retardan'.
'retardan' is an anagram of 'NARRATED'.
'as' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for narrated that I've seen before include "Recounted, recited" , "Provided commentary" , "Related" , "Told a story, gave an account of" , "told a tale" .)