living out of a suitcase
2
6.5
- idiom
- Informal
:
vivir de una maleta
- After two months of living out of a suitcase, I finally felt exhausted from constant travel.
Examples
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I'm living out of a suitcase.
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As soon as I get used to living out of a suitcase again, boom, I get all this space back.
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But it's tough when you live out of a suitcase.
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We all live out of a suitcase.
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I hate living out of a suitcase.
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Of course, I'll be living out of a suitcase for at least three weeks.
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I'm a Renaissance man who lives out of a suitcase.
Blog text (10) -
Six weeks is a long time to be traveling around, living out of a suitcase and dragging a six-year-old along.
Blog text (8) -
Heading out on the road for months at a time and forced to live out of a suitcase, an artist's personal grooming habits are bound to change.
Blog text (16) -
She spent the summer living out of a suitcase while visiting different countries.
Synonyms
476
3.4
Travelling from place to place for work, like a band or sports team
Living by traveling and not staying long in one place
To travel from place to place and live without a fixed home
Moving from place to place rather than living in one place
Antonyms
How Settled
Surface Forms
Morphology
live + out + of + a + suitcase
The components 'live', 'out of', and 'suitcase' allow a learner to infer someone is subsisting from what they carry in a suitcase and thus travelling a lot, so much of the meaning is derivable from the parts. However the phrase is metaphorical (not literally living inside a suitcase) and carries an idiomatic nuance of temporary/unstable residence that may not be fully predictable without exposure.
Etymology
Living out of a suitcase comes from the picture of someone always on the move, staying in hotels and never fully unpacking their suitcase. So it means 'spending much of your time traveling' and 'not having a permanent home'.