Take refuge in extremes of cold when castigated (6)
I believe the answer is:
chided
'castigated' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with communicating as well as being past participle verbs.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'take refuge in extremes of cold' is the wordplay.
'take refuge' becomes 'hide' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'extremes of' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (only the letters at the extremes of the word).
'cold' with its centre taken out is 'cd'.
'hide' placed into 'cd' is 'CHIDED'.
'when' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for chided that I've seen before include "Reprimanded or rebuked" , "Scolded or rebuked" .)