| 释义 |
cleaner|ˈkliːnə(r)|
[f. clean v. + -er1.]
1. a. One who or that which cleans; spec. one whose work is to clean some particular thing. Also cleaner up.
a1792Sir J. Reynolds Journ. Flanders (R.), It has been in the hand of some picture cleaner. 1817J. Scott Paris Revisit. 383 A tribe of cleaners, keepers, and porters. 1884Daily News 4 Sept. 3/2 A cleaner..had been attending to a Lancashire engine at the cleaning sheds. 1908Daily Chron. 24 Aug. 9/6 Pianos.—Fitters up; also a cleaner up. 1921Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §499 Cleaner, cleaner-up (pianos); scrapes (mucks off) and rubs veneered parts of piano with sandpaper or glasspaper, preparatory to polishing.
b. An instrument or machine for cleaning; as the two-handled knife employed by curriers, one of the rollers in a carding machine, etc.
1874Knight Dict. Mech. s.v. Cleaner, The worker..takes the fibre from the card-drum and delivers it to the cleaner, which returns it to the card-drum. 1888Daily News 10 Sept. 7/3 Mincers, coffee mills, and fork cleaners.
c. A shop that cleans clothes and household fabrics; = dry-cleaner (see dry a. C. 2 a). Freq. in pl., the cleaners (or possessive, the cleaner's).
1873Young Englishwoman Mar. 155/3 Imitation furs seldom clean well... The best plan would be, to send to a good cleaner's. 1928R. Hall Well of Loneliness xxiii. 208 Shall I wash your new crêpe de Chine nightgowns, ma'am? Or ought they go to the cleaners? 1967C. Fremlin Prisoner's Base xi. 72 Some problem about getting a skirt altered and back from the cleaners in time for the weekend.
d. A small marine animal which cleans larger ones of parasites, bacteria, or dead tissue; also cleaner-fish.
1955Zeitschr. für Tierpsychol. XII. 219 All typical cleaners, irrespective of their zoological relationship, possess striking yellow colours. 1958Listener 14 Aug. 247/2 The huge manta rays..opening their gills to let in the tiny cleaner-fish. 1967Daily Tel. 21 Oct. 13/5 It is known that a cleaner-fish occupies a niche in a reef which is usually marked by a brightly-coloured anemone serving the same purpose as a barber's pole. 1968R. D. Martin tr. Wickler's Mimicry xiv. 158 We now recognise 42 species of cleaner-fish in 14 families.
2. Slang phr. to take (someone) to the cleaners: (a) to take away, or defraud of, all someone's money; so to go, send, to the cleaners (orig. U.S.); (b) to criticize strongly.
1932Flynn's 28 May 49/2, I dropped the biggest wager I had ever made on anything... That sent me to the cleaners, wiped out. 1949H. MacLennan Precipice i. 71 He..had..played several more sets of tennis with him. He had taken Carl to the cleaner's this time. 1950R. Chandler Simple Art of Murder 19 I'm in a jam. But I'm not going to the cleaners... Half of this money is mine. 1961Guardian 13 Sept. 8/3 Many a gilded youth..has been ‘taken to the cleaners’ once too often at midnight parties. 1963Listener 14 Feb. 308/3, I hoped Mr Carr might round on Mr Cousins and start taking the apprenticeship system to the cleaners. 1963Ibid. 7 Mar. 436/1 We..heard the recently fired Captain Atkins take the Atomic Energy Authority to the cleaners over their marine nuclear policy. |