Everyday Brazilian Idioms

Idioms in Portuguese rarely translate word-for-word — but the mental images they paint are often striking once you see them. Pisar na bola is literally "to step on the ball" — and it means to mess up, to drop the ball on someone.

Twenty idioms that pay rent

Idiom	Literal	Real meaning
Pisar na bola	step on the ball	mess up, let someone down
Dar um jeitinho	give a little way	find a workaround
Encher linguiça	stuff sausage	pad / waffle / talk to fill time
Pagar mico	pay a monkey	embarrass yourself
Quebrar o galho	break the branch	help out, get someone out of a jam
Estar de boa	to be of good	to be chill, all good
Falar pelos cotovelos	speak through the elbows	talk too much
Engolir sapo	swallow a frog	swallow your pride / take it on the chin
Estar com a corda toda	to be with the whole rope	to be wound up / very energetic
Tirar onda	take wave	show off / mess around
Ficar de cara	stay with face	be stunned / surprised in a bad way
Dar pano pra manga	give cloth for sleeve	be a big deal / a long story
Chutar o balde	kick the bucket	give up / lose it (not the English meaning!)
Tá tranquilo, tá favorável	it's calm, it's favorable	all good, no problem (slang catchphrase)
Mão de vaca	cow's hand	stingy person
Cara de pau	face of wood	shameless
Botar a mão na massa	put the hand in the dough	get to work
Pisar em ovos	walk on eggs	tread carefully
Não ter pé nem cabeça	have no foot or head	make no sense
Tá amarrado!	it's tied!	done deal! (warding off bad luck)

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