What exactly does ‘dead-broke’ mean in today’s language?
When I grew up in the 1970s...it meant you didn’t have enough money to buy steaks.....so you ate mostly chicken. When I was in the Air Force...dead-broke meant you got only really cheap beer the weekend before pay-day. Today? When I say I’m dead broke...it means I don’t have enough loot to buy Yankees tickets, but I can go to Florida for two weeks and watch them on cable TV.
To me, “dead broke” meant no chicken, it meant rice, oatmeal, and sometimes corn meal, no meat, not milk, no eggs, no car, no resources.
Even when used casually by people temporarily broke, it meant borrowing money for gas, or cigarettes, or for a utility bill.