Object's engineers battle time and cost (11)
I believe the answer is:
remonstrate
'object's' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with communicating as well as being verbs in their base form.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'engineers battle time and cost' is the wordplay.
'engineers' becomes 're' (Royal Engineers).
'battle' becomes 'mons' (Battle of Mons, WWr battle).
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'cost' becomes 'rate' (rate is a kind of cost).
're'+'mons'+'t'+'rate'='REMONSTRATE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for remonstrate that I've seen before include "Take exception to" , "Argue in protest" , "Make a forcefully reproachful protest" , "Make a forceful protest" , "Take issue with" .)