Duck going in awfully wet, head of linnet drier (5)
I believe the answer is:
towel
'drier' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'duck going in awfully wet head of linnet' is the wordplay.
'duck' becomes 'o'.
'going in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'awfully' indicates anagramming the letters.
'head of' says to take the initial letters.
The first letter of 'linnet' is 'l'.
'wet' is an anagram of 'twe'.
'o' placed inside 'twe' is 'towe'.
'towe'+'l'='TOWEL'
(Other definitions for towel that I've seen before include "what sweater needs?" , "Drier" , "This could dry up" , "Piece of absorbent cloth or paper for drying" , "Bathroom cloth" .)