Panting, about to engage in towelling oneself down? (3,2,6)
I believe the answer is:
out of breath
'panting' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'to engage in towelling oneself down?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'to' is found in the answer.
'down?' could be 'eat' (downing is a kind of eating) and 'eat' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
'about' is the link.
(Other definitions for out of breath that I've seen before include "Gasping" , "pants?" .)