[English Expression] being taken for a ride

You may have heard this American English expression before: “being taken for a ride”.

Of course it does not mean that some nice person is offering to take you for a ride in their nice car. It is actually a more negative comment meaning that someone is taking advantage of you – that someone is doing something that is not fair or is not the right way to treat you. For example, if you paid a company to do some repairs on your house, and they keep making the bill higher and higher from what they first said the total cost would be, then you could say: “I am being taken for a ride by that company!”.

being taken for a ride

Is this a ride? 🙂

Or let’s say you are getting divorced and your wife is “taking you to the cleaners” (Ha I always do that – slipping in another expression – this one means that someone is taking all your money – more for another day). For this divorce case, where your wife is going to be taking most of your paycheck after the divorce,  you could actually say: “She is really taking me for a ride.” If you wanted to be very smart you could even combine the two expressions: “She is really taking me for a ride. She’s taking me to the cleaners! Ahhhhhh!”.

That’s all for now,

Oliver Meissener, LiveEnglishClass Teaching Director.

Skype English Classes, LiveEnglishClass.com 

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