Carpet that is ancient, small and austere (5)
I believe the answer is:
scold
'carpet that is ancient small and austere' is the definition.
'scold' can be an answer for 'carpet' (carpet can informally mean to criticise heavily). I'm not sure about the rest of the definition.
'carpet that is ancient' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'ancient' could be 'old' (similar in meaning) and 'old' is located in the answer.
'that is' could be 'sc' (abbrv. for Latin scilicet; 'namely') and 'sc' is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
(Other definitions for scold that I've seen before include "Rate" , "Angrily rebuke" , "Rebuke; nagging woman" , "Complaining woman" , "Chide - nag" .)