take to the cleaners

English

Alternative forms

• take to the cleaner's

Etymology

Humorous alteration of the older expression to clean (someone) out.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Verb

take to the cleaners (third-person singular simple present takes to the cleaners, present participle taking to the cleaners, simple past took to the cleaners, past participle taken to the cleaners)

1. (originally US) To take a significant quantity of a person's money or valuables, through overcharging, litigation, unfavorable investing, gambling, fraud, etc.
   • 1929, Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest‎^[1]:

     “That’s not the idea. These people you want taken to the cleaners were friends of yours yesterday. Maybe they will be friends again next week. I don’t care about that. But I’m not playing politics for you. […]

   • 1934 October 25, “Dizzy and Daffy Begin Careers in Vaudeville”, in The Washington Reporter, retrieved 5 August 2013, page 12:

     Dizzy refused to pose with a blonde chorine clad only in step-ins. "No sir," exploded Dizzy. ". . . [M]y wife would take me to the cleaners if she saw a picture like that."

   • 1983, Billy Joel (lyrics and music), “Easy Money”, in An Innocent Man:

     Take me to the power, take me to the heat / Take me to the cleaners if it's open to the street / Something's got to pay off, something's got to break / Someone's got a fortune that they're begging me to take

   • 1984 October 15, “Tax and Spend”, in Time, retrieved 5 August 2013:

     George Bush paid the IRS $198,000 in back taxes and interest, and he is planning to sue, if necessary, to get his money back. "I'm the guy that's been taken to the cleaners," Bush said last week.

   • 1995, Paul Kaye, Anthony Hines, Anyone for Pennis?, spoken by Dennis Pennis (Paul Kaye):

     Did your ex-wife ever go to the laundrette? Or is it just her husband that she takes to the cleaners, man?

   • 2007 February 4, Scott Shane, Ron Nixon, “U.S. contractors becoming a virtual fourth branch of government”, in New York Times, retrieved 5 August 2013:

     "Billions of dollars are being squandered, and the taxpayer is being taken to the cleaners," Waxman said.

   • 2011, Amy Winehouse (lyrics and music), “Between the Cheats”, in Hidden Treasures:

     'Cause anyone who's seen us / Through our victories and dumb defeats / Knows that I'll take you to the cleaners / If you come between the cheats

   • 2018 September 13, Marcel Theroux, “Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart review – America’s new age of discontent”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     These give the book its basic form: a master of the universe adrift in the country he helped take to the cleaners.

2. (slang) To thrash someone.
   • 1979, Monty Python's Life of Brian, spoken by Mr. Big Nose (Michael Palin):

     One more time, mate, I'll take you to the fuckin' cleaners!

Translations

to take a significant amount of money or valuables

• Catalan: pelar (ca)
• Finnish: kyniä (fi)
• German: schröpfen (de), ausnehmen (de)
• Polish: puszczać z torbami impf, puścić z torbami (pl) pf

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2024) “take to the cleaners v.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
• “take to the cleaners”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• Eric Partridge (2005) “take to the cleaners”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volumes 1 (A–I), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 427.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “cleaner”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “take to the cleaners”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.