fold like a cheap suitcase
To offer little resistance; to submit easily. (A poorly made suitcase would be prone to collapsing.) I think this team's defense will fold like a cheap suitcase if we just put a little more pressure on them. The suspect folded like a cheap suitcase after some pressure from the prosecution, signing a full confession for the crime. The senator swore she would fight to get this legislation passed, but as soon as she met the slightest bit of resistance, she folded like a cheap suitcase.
live out
1. To go through and complete a particular period of time. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "live" and "out." I just want to live my remaining years out on my grandfather's farm in the country.
2. To successfully achieve, accomplish, or complete some goal or desire. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "live" and "out." At the age of forty, I'm finally living out my dream of being a professional author. He's living his hopes out of becoming a surgeon.
3. To do something that mimics or acts out one's intimate dreams, desires, passions, or fantasies. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "live" and "out." The experience puts amateurs in the pilot seat, giving them the chance to live out their fantasies of flying an airplane.
4. To dwell or reside in a location away from one's place of employment or education. They offered the nanny a room in their house, but he said he preferred to live out.
live out of a/(one's) suitcase
To only have the clothes and personal items in one's suitcase(s) available to one. I'm on the road for three months at a time for work, so I've gotten pretty used to living out of a suitcase. Sarah's been living out of her suitcases in her brother's apartment ever since getting evicted from her house.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
live out of a suitcase
Fig. to stay very briefly in several places, never unpacking one's luggage. I hate living out of a suitcase. For my next vacation, I want to go to just one place and stay there the whole time.
live something out
to act out something such as one's fantasies. She tried to live her dreams out. He has a tendency to try to live out his fantasies.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
live out
1. Complete or survive the end of a period of time, as in Grandpa wants to live out his days in a warmer climate. [First half of 1500s]
2. Reside away from one's place of employment, as in
She's a fine housekeeper, but insists on living out. This expression is used primarily for domestic help. [Mid-1800s] Also see
live in, def. 1.
3. live out of. Lead a lifestyle characterized by a particular item. This phrase appears in such idioms as live out of a suitcase, meaning "to travel so much that one has no time to unpack one's belongings," or live out of cans, meaning "to eat only canned food for lack of other foods or time to prepare them." For example, Traveling for months on end, he got very tired of living out of a suitcase, or We had neither gas nor electricity for a week and had to live out of cans.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
live out of a suitcase
live or stay somewhere on a temporary basis and with only a limited selection of your belongings, typically because your occupation requires a great deal of travelling.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
live out
v.1. To live outside one's place of domestic employment: You have to get home on time when you have a nanny who lives out.
2. To experience the passing and completion of some period of time or the attainment of something planned, desired, or imagined: She hopes to live out her dreams of becoming a famous author. He lived his last days out on a remote tropical island.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs. Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
fold like a cheap suitcase
Collapse easily. Expensive luggage was made, as now, from well-constructed leather or fabric. Cheap ones used to be made of cardboard with little or no structural reinforcement, not very sturdy especially when manhandled by baggage handlers or hotel porters. A sports team with no defense or a poker player with a losing hand would both fold like a cheap suitcase. You'd also hear “fold like a cheap suit,” but since fabric folds easily, whether it's cashmere or polyester, “suitcase” presents a better connotation of a losing proposition.
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price Copyright © 2011 by Steven D. Price