desabafar
Language: Portuguese · [dɨ.zɐ.bɐˈfaɾ] · Pronunciation: duh-zah-bah-FAR
More Portuguese words · More words for a feeling
Meaning
to get the whole thing off your chest and breathe again
The story
Abafar is to smother, so desabafar is taking the lid off: you tell a friend the whole thing and breathe again. Portuguese treats it as a favour you can ask for outright. English has to borrow a chest and get the thing off it.
The four rounds
- Which language is it from?
- Portuguese (Lisbon)
- What does it literally say?
- To un-stifle
- Where would you hear it?
- At the kitchen table long past midnight
- What does it mean?
- To say out loud what has been sitting on you
How it went
Harder than most words so far.
More Portuguese words
- lusco-fusco blind word
the half-light between day and night — twilight - saudade practice word
a bittersweet ache for what's absent — longing - desenrascanço practice word
the art of wriggling out of a tight spot — improvisation
More words for a feeling
- ikigai practice word
what makes a life worth living — a reason to get up - firgun 2026-09-27
open-hearted, ungrudging delight in another person's success - dépaysement 2026-09-30
the pleasantly strange feeling of being far from everything familiar - þetta reddast blind word
it will all work out somehow - toska 2026-09-26
a vague, aching restlessness of the soul, longing for it knows not what - myötähäpeä 2026-09-11
embarrassment on someone else's behalf — pure cringe
2026-10-06 · ‹ Previous word · All words