Crossword Genius

Shocking deception almost secures gold carpet (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

traumatic

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

'shocking' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'deception almost secures gold carpet' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'gold' could be 'au' ('Au' can be a synonym of 'gold') and 'au' is located in the answer.
'carpet' could be 'mat' (I've seen this before) and 'mat' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for traumatic that I've seen before include "Deeply distressing" , "Direly shocking" , "Psychologically painful" , "Deeply disturbing" , "Psychologically damaging" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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