Word.ws English Dictionary

takes to the cleaners

takes to the cleaners is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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)

  1. (idiomatic, slang) 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
  2. (idiomatic, slang) 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)

Questions about takes to the cleaners

What is takes to the cleaners the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Takes to the cleaners is the third-person singular simple present indicative of take to the cleaners.

Words near takes to the cleaners in the dictionary

  1. takes to one's heels
  2. takes to task
  3. takes to the bank
  4. takes to the bricks
  5. takes to the cleaner's
  6. takes to the cleaners
  7. takes to the field
  8. takes to the grave
  9. takes to the heather
  10. takes to the hills
  11. takes to the road

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: takes to the cleaners (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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