take to the cleaner's
take to the cleaner's is the alternative form of take to the cleaners.
Meaning of take to the cleaners
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)
- To take a significant quantity of a person's money or valuables, through overcharging, litigation, unfavorable investing, gambling, fraud, etc.
- “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.[…]1929, Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest
- To thrash someone.
- One more time, mate, I'll take you to the fuckin' cleaners!1979, Monty Python's Life of Brian, spoken by Mr. Big Nose (Michael Palin)
Forms of take to the cleaner's
| third-person singular present | takes to the cleaner's |
|---|---|
| present participle | taking to the cleaner's |
| past | took to the cleaner's |
| past participle | taken to the cleaner's |
Questions about take to the cleaner's
- What is take to the cleaner's the alternative form of?
- Take to the cleaner's is the alternative form of take to the cleaners.
Words near take to the cleaner's in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: take to the cleaner's (page history and authors); take to the cleaners (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “take to the cleaner's.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/take_to_the_cleaner%27s. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.