'took him to the cleaners' the origins please

splange | 10:32 Tue 27th Sep 2005 | Phrases & Sayings

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I know this term is used in referring to ripping someone off but can anybody help break it down, or tell me when/what context it was first used? Thanks in advance.

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dutch caps?

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Clanad

Relieved 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' (1812) 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).

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