Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) to lose badly, esp. in sport, gambling or business; thus to the cleaners, of money, gone or exhausted.

1908		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 26: Mutt lost another chunk on Blondy yesterday and the bank roll is almost to the cleaners.
1921		H.C. Witwer Leather Pushers 174: I’ll go to the cleaners for sixty thousand men if kid Roberts don’t ash home in front.
1934		R. Chandler ‘Finger Man’ in Pearls Are a Nuisance (1964) 84: I’m no baby and I’m in a jam. But I’m not going to the cleaners just the same.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

1. open to being defrauded.

1939

W. Winchell On Broadway 21 Oct. [synd. col.] If the monkey (sucker) ignores the suspicious move, he is ready for the cleaners.

2. (US) mentally and physically worn out, on the verge of collapse.

1932		R.E. Howard ‘Vikings of the Gloves’ in Fight Stories Feb. 🌐 He realized that, instead of being ready for the cleaners, I was stronger’n ever and ra’ring for action.
1944		H. Brown Walk in Sun 59: Sergeant Porter was [...] ready for the cleaners. He was a good man, but had reached the end of his tether. All that remained was for the tether to break.

1. (US) to reduce to penury.

1908

B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 21: You’ll send us to the cleaners yet, you big stew.

2. to defraud, outwit and otherwise remove all of a victim’s assets in a wager, by extortion or by similar legal or illegal means.

1924		D. Hammett ‘Nightmare Town’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 10: I reckon old man Denvir took you to the cleaner’s.
1927		H.C. Witwer Classics in Sl. 84: Shylock thinks matters over for a minute and he sees a chance to send his old enemy, Battlin’ Antonio, to the cleaner’s.
1936		Lil Johnson ‘I’ll Take You to the Cleaners’ 🎵 I’ll take you to the cleaners, you know I’ll slip you on in, / Oh, you try to be cute, but that don’t work with me.
1941		A. Lomax Mister Jelly Roll (1952) 226: It’s those people’s racket, it’s their line [...] They’ll send you to the cleaners.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 45/1: Cleaners, to take to the. To rob or swindle of all one’s money.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 178: Cleaners, sent to the Completely outwitted and (usually) substantially defrauded.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 188: Everybody was getting taken to the cleaners.
1980		M. Bail Homesickness (1999) 99: Garry was up seventy quid before it rained [...] As he kept shaking his head, he’d been ‘taken to the cleaners’.
1983		S. May No Exceptions in Best Radio Plays (1984) 122: Done very well for herself. Took me to the cleaners. Had to sell the house.
1990		R.G. Barratt ‘Bloody Minded Bloodsuckers’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] When I [...] was sent to the cleaners by the local builders, the local wallopers came banging on the door.
1992		A. Duff One Night Out Stealing 107: You wanna hear the variations these people get on taking the Social Welfare to the cleaners — it’s an art.
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 136: I ain’t got a fuckin’ clue what I’m doing here and you fellers could go rumping me round the cleaners no danger.
1997		‘Q’ Deadmeat 312: I’m going to personally make sure that your wife takes you to the cleaners.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 287: I saw the insiders taking me for a fool [...] ripping me off, taking me to the cleaners.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 91: The misogynistic semi-alcoholic who brooded bitterly [...] about the last bitch who’d taken him to the cleaners.
2016		T. Robinson Rough Trade [ebook] ‘But last time you bubbleheads needed extensive shift coverage, you both got taken to the cleaners pretty bad’.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] Snouch will take him to the cleaners and the Herald will hang him out to dry.

3. (US Und.) of an object, to destroy, to ruin.

1910		Spokane Press (WA) 22 Sept. 7/3: One old bowser [...] swung on my roof with her mush and put my thatch to the cleaners.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 174: One of the world’s greatest business empires [...] was being quietly taken to the cleaners by muddied oggies who were all low cunning and Welsh slime (or charm).

4. of an individual, to defeat thoroughly, to trounce.

1928		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 27: He can’t fight — the big windbag — I can send his kind to the cleaner’s 8 days a week.
1940		R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 171: ‘I like smooth shiny girls, hard-boiled and loaded with sin.’ ‘They take you to the cleaners.’.
1975		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Apr. 44: The bastards wanted to take me for a trip to the cleaners and still serve me up like a baked dinner.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 188: Everybody was getting taken to the cleaners.
1986		H. Selby Jr Song of the Silent Snow (1988) 12: He was gonna take us all to the cleaners.
2015		N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] Funnily enough, on match day, the Kings seemed to know all our tactics and took us to the cleaners.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 66: ‘Liz [Taylor] is hopping mad at Eddie [Fisher] [...] She’s told her lawyer to take him to the cleaners’.