Crossword Genius

Restrained about petition by credit centre (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

repressed

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'restrained' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'about petition by credit centre' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'about' could be 're' (regarding) and 're' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'pressed' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for repressed that I've seen before include "Kept under control; put down" , "Kept bottled up" , "deleted recordings sometimes were" , "Pent up" , "Checked" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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