Empurrar com a barriga

Literally: To push with the belly

Example: “O governo vai empurrando a reforma com a barriga há anos.” — The government has been kicking the can down the road on the reform for years.

English equivalent: To kick the can down the road

Origin: "Empurrar," to push, has an origin that is itself not fully settled, though it's plausibly related to Spanish empujar. "Barriga," belly, developed as a figurative extension of barrica, a cask or barrel, borrowed from French barrique — a rounded, bulging container lending its shape to the human midsection by simple visual comparison. Pushing something forward using only your belly, rather than the far more effective and deliberate use of your hands, produces movement so slow, awkward, and minimal that it barely counts as real effort — a vivid physical image for the same kind of reluctant, drawn-out procrastination the idiom now describes, especially a task or decision repeatedly nudged along just enough to avoid actually resolving it.