take to the cleaners

A humorous alteration of the older expression to clean (someone) out.

• "“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.[…]"
• "Dizzy refused to pose with a blonde chorine clad only in step-ins. "No sir," exploded Dizzy. ". . . [M]y wife would take me to the cleaners if she saw a picture like that.""
• "Take me to the power, take me to the heat / Take me to the cleaners if 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 take"
• "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 been taken to the cleaners," Bush said last week."
• "Did your ex-wife ever go to the laundrette? Or is it just her husband that she takes to the cleaners, man?"
• ""Billions of dollars are being squandered, and the taxpayer is being taken to the cleaners," Waxman said."
• "'Cause anyone who's seen us / Through our victories and dumb defeats / Knows that I'll take you to the cleaners / If you come between the cheats"
• "These give the book its basic form: a master of the universe adrift in the country he helped take to the cleaners."
• "One more time, mate, I'll take you to the fuckin' cleaners!"