cleaners

See also: cleaner's

English

Noun

cleaners

1. plural of cleaner

Noun

cleaners

1. A professional laundry or dry cleaner.
   • 1941 July, Ben Karpman, “On the Need of Separating Psychopathy into Two Distinct Clinical Types: the Symptomatic and the Idiopathic”, in Journal of Criminal Psychopathology, volume III, number 1, Monticello, N.Y.: Medical Journal Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 122:

     Further information from the wife, obtained through another channel, tells of the patient’s leaving the house to go to a cleaners for his tuxedo preparatory to attending a night club, […]

Usage notes

• This form is now interpreted as plural and usually spelled without an apostrophe, even in official usage, to justify the removal of the apostrophe. It was traditionally spelled cleaner's with an apostrophe because this is grammatically correct, as can be seen with forms such as go to the doctor's, which cannot be reinterpreted as plural.

Derived terms

• take to the cleaners

Anagrams

• cleanser, recleans, sclarene