Pisar na bola
Meaning: To mess up or let someone down.
Language: Portuguese
Literally: To step on the ball
Category: Daily Life
Origin: From football-mad Brazil, where a player treading on the ball stumbles and blows the play.
Equivalents in other languages
- Greek: Τα έκανε θάλασσα — literally: He turned it all into a sea
- Spanish: No dar pie con bola — literally: To not give foot to ball
More idioms — Daily Life
- 바가지를 쓰다 (bagajireul sseuda) — To be overcharged; to get ripped off.
- 비행기를 태우다 (bihaenggireul taeuda) — To flatter someone over the top.
- Pabucu dama atılmak — To fall out of favor and be cast aside.
- Être dans de beaux draps — To be in a real mess.
- Tirer le diable par la queue — To struggle to make ends meet.
- Mettre la charrue avant les bœufs — To do things in the wrong order.
More Portuguese idioms
- Encher linguiça — To pad something out with filler to take up space or time.
- Nem que a vaca tussa — No way; under no circumstances.
- Tirar o cavalo da chuva — To give up on an expectation.
- Pagar mico — To embarrass yourself publicly.
- Procurar pelo em ovo — To nitpick over nothing.
- Ficar a ver navios — To be left disappointed and empty-handed.
From our tongue twisters
- A aranha arranha a rã. A rã arranha a aranha. — Contrasts the soft single r of aranha against the hard rolled rr of arranha — one letter…
- O rato roeu a roupa do rei de Roma; a rainha com raiva roeu o resto. — An unstoppable 'r' trill drill — every key word begins or ends with the Portuguese r.
- Um tigre, dois tigres, três tigres tristes triscam trigo num trigal. — A 'tr' cluster drill that adds a sad adjective to make the alliteration worse.