take to the cleaners

Meaning: (originallyUS,slang,idiomatic)To take a significant quantity of a person'smoneyorvaluables, throughovercharging,litigation, unfavorableinvesting,gambling,fraud, etc.1929,Dashiell Hammett,Red Harvest‎[1]:“That’s not the idea. These people you wanttaken to the cleanerswere 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.[…]1934October 25, “Dizzy and Daffy Begin Careers in Vaudeville”, inThe Washington Reporter, retrieved5 August 2013, page12:Dizzy refused to pose with a blonde chorine clad only in step-ins. "No sir," exploded Dizzy. ". . . [M]y wife wouldtake me to the cleanersif she saw a picture like that."1983,Billy Joel, “Easy Money”, inAn Innocent Man:Take me to the power, take me to the heat /Take me to the cleanersif 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 take1984October 15, “Tax and Spend”, inTime, retrieved5 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 beentaken 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 shetakes to the cleaners, man?2007February 4,Scott Shane, Ron Nixon, “U.S. contractors becoming a virtual fourth branch of government”, inNew York Times, retrieved5 August 2013:"Billions of dollars are being squandered, and the taxpayer is beingtaken to the cleaners," Waxman said.2011,Amy Winehouse, “Between the Cheats”, inHidden Treasures:'Cause anyone who's seen us / Through our victories and dumb defeats / Knows that I'lltake you to the cleaners/ If you come between the cheats2018September 13, Marcel Theroux, “Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart review – America’s new age of discontent”, inThe Guardian‎[2],→ISSN:These give the book its basic form: a master of the universe adrift in the country he helpedtake to the cleaners.; (slang,idiomatic)Tothrashsomeone.1979,Monty Python's Life of Brian, spoken by Mr. Big Nose (Michael Palin):One more time, mate, I'lltake you to the fuckin' cleaners!

Examples:

EN: - Things you take to the cleaners.
ES: - Tu ex-marido. - Cosas que llevas a limpiar.
EN: So I went into your office to get your jacket to take to the cleaners and there was a lot of money in that pocket.
ID: Jadi aku pergi ke kantormu untuk mengambil jaket, untuk dibawa ke pembersih dan ada banyak uang di sakunya.
EN: they often take to the cleaners.
TE: చాలా తరచుగా వారు ఇంజెక్టర్ల శుభ్రపరిచే ఉపయోగిస్తారు .

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).