Showed signs of wanting to communicate (8)
I believe the answer is:
gestured
'showed signs of' is the definition.
The answer and definition 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?
'to communicate' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'communicate' could be 'gesture' (gesturing is a kind of communicating) and 'gesture' is present in the answer.
A single letter 'd' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
'wanting' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for gestured that I've seen before include "Expressed through movement - gets rude (anag)" , "Signalled, motioned" .)