Told off sleeping judge? (7)
I believe the answer is:
berated
'told off sleeping judge?' 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 a link between them that I don't see?
'told off' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'told off' could be 'rated' (rate can mean to scold harshly) and 'rated' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'be' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for berated that I've seen before include "Scolded" , "Dressed down" .)