Broken article placed on end of desk (5)
I believe the answer is:
kaput
'broken' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'article placed on end of desk' is the wordplay.
'article' becomes 'a' (indefinite article).
'placed' becomes 'put' (I've seen this in other clues**).
'on' says to put letters next to each other.
'end of' suggests the final letters.
The final letter of 'desk' is 'k'.
'a'+'put'='aput'
'aput' after 'k' is 'KAPUT'.
(Other definitions for kaput that I've seen before include "Broken down irretrievably" , "Out of order,or broken, from German" , "Defunct (informal)" , "Conked out" , "Up the spout" .)