Taken to the cleaners

Posted by ESC on October 26, 2001

In Reply to: Taken to the cleaners posted by simon on October 26, 2001

: Please heeelp !! Can anyone tell me the origin of this saying.

: Many thanks if you can

TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS -- "Relived of one's money or aspirations, perhaps by flimflam; easily bested. The advent of professional dry cleaners not so many decades ago brought about this modernization of the earlier phrase 'cleaned out.' James H. Vaux, in his 'New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash (slang) Language' defined the older phrase as follows: 'Said of a gambler who has lost his stake at play; also of a flat (dupe) who has been stript of all his money.'" From The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).