The French take clothes off for someone to clean them (9)
I believe the answer is:
laundress
'someone to clean them' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'the french take clothes off' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'la' ('the' in French).
'take clothes off' becomes 'undress' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'la'+'undress'='LAUNDRESS'
'for' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for laundress that I've seen before include "Cleaner" , "Woman who washes clothes for a living" , "who's got her clothes?" , "She'll clean" , "Washerwoman" .)