Dictionary

broken-down valise en · NOUN

Etymology

Variant of busted valise.

Meanings

1. (US, qualifier:Mafia, slang) A person who has fallen on hard times; a has-been.
   • Adam Schiff: "Abe Mercer. Ten years ago, he was a broken-down valise. Bad divorce, partners suing him, ethics review. If Doc Gooden can rise from the dead, why not Abe Mercer?" 1996 September 18, René Balcer, “Causa Mortis”, in Law & Order, season 7, episode 1:
   • "In the football business there are so many sleazy bums — broken-down valises, I call them — who don't have two quarters to rub together," Bloom said. 1987 June 21, Bill Brubaker, “The Rise and Gall of Secret Agents Walters and Bloom”, in Washington Post, Washington, DC:
   • Sonny was just a dirty-looking old man, a broken-down old man. A broken-down valise. That's Charlie's words. That's what he'd call a washed-up wiseguy. 2003, Gary Weiss, Born to Steal: When the Mafia Hit Wall Street, New York: Warner Books, page 237:
   • The Mafia and the FBI both considered Greg a relic, a washed-up has-been or, in the colorful language of the Mafia, a brokester, a broken-down valise. 2008, Joaquin "Jack" Garcia, Making Jack Falcone: An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Family, New York: Touchstone, page 4:
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see broken down, valise.
   • Wedged into the rumble seat was my broken-down valise with everything I possessed in the world. 1980, E. L. Doctorow, Loon Lake, New York: Random House, page 129:

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