To "sink the team" is an expression that means that someone or something caused a team to lose. Usually, the one that is found responsible for sinking the team is called "âncora".
- Hoje o Manoel afundou o time.
- E como!
The worst player in a team. He is the one responsible for "sinking the team" (afundar o time).
- O Manoel é âncora, não escolhe ele não.
"Gambiarras" are workarounds, or improvisations that people do to overcome problems. Like when you have no power adapter and you build your own with staples and paper clips. Probably the gambiarra champion is MacGyver.
- Oh não! A impressora quebrou.
- Não se preocupe. Me dê um clipes, uma cenoura e dois palitos de dentes que arrumo.
- Que gambiarra!
"To pay for the duck". It also has a nuance of being fooled into a bad situation, but not as bad as in "comprar gato por lebre". It is more of "things happened, and by a combination of foolishness/naivete/randomness, I got stuck in a bad situation".
- Mas não foi você quem quebrou o vaso. Por que você vai pagar por ele?
- Eu sempre acabo pagando o pato.
To buy snake oil.
- Achei que o creme ia funcionar... acabei comprando gato por lebre.
"Take him, because it is your son!". The opposite of holding the hot potato (Segurar uma batata quente): giving the bad situation back to the person that is responsible for that.
- Ele quis me passar a batata quente, mas daí eu virei e falei: "Toma que o filho é teu".
"To hold a hot potato". Have to/being forced to deal with an unplesant/bad situation. It usually implies that it is not your fault, but you are stuck dealing with it because everybody else was able to dodge the responsability. If you also do that, you can say that you passou a batata quente (passed along the hot potato - to somebody else).
- Como foi a reunião?
- O chefe me passou a batata quente
"The rope always snaps at the weakest side". It is used when wanting to give someone advice, as in "don't get in this kind of situation, you know that if something goes wrong, the rope always snaps at the weakest side, and you will have to deal with it".
- A corda sempre arrebenta do lado mais fraco
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