Word.ws English Dictionary

taking to the cleaners

taking to the cleaners is the present participle and gerund 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 taking to the cleaners

What is taking to the cleaners the present participle and gerund of?
Taking to the cleaners is the present participle and gerund of take to the cleaners.

Words near taking to the cleaners in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taking 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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