Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms 221. The idiom today is to take someone
to the cleaners. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone takes
another person to the cleaners, he or she takes someone's money or possessions in
a dishonest or unfair way or at least that's the way we feel about it.
It probably alludes to the idea that you know , like you yes when you take your
clothes to the cleaners they got to clean out your pockets. So they probably are
taking all your money or possessions. If you left anything there you shouldn't.
All right but anyway let's let's continue here. Example number one. His wife hired a
good lawyer or his ex-wife hired a good lawyer and she really took him to the
cleaners. She got the house the car and most of the valuables , and he still has
to pay her alimony. So this would be a typical way that we might say it . You
often hear this like with divorces. Maybe if the wife gets a good lawyer, she took the
husband to the cleaners. So he really you know, he didn't end up with much. She was
lucky she got most of it. Okay. Let's look at number two. That con artist
took this company to the cleaners. He pretended to fall and injure himself in
one of their stores and sued them for a fortune. So of course , this is illegal.
This goes under you know, insurance fraud, basically, but it does happen. Sometimes
we hear about this and you know, so he pretended to get hurt. And he took the
company took the cleaners. He sued them for a lot of money. All right. So this is
typically the way we hear it used. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it's clear.
Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.