What does “melar” mean in Brazilian Portuguese?

Melar comes straight from mel (“honey”) and means to make something sticky or smear it with a gooey mess — exactly what watermelon juice does to your face. But Brazilians stretch it figuratively too: when a plan, deal, or game “fails,” it melou. So the same word covers both a sticky chin and a flopped scheme, which is what makes it so handy to know.

Literally: o suco grudento mela o seu rosto — “the sticky juice gets all over your face.” The honey root shows through in meloso (“sticky, syrupy,” and by extension “cloying” or “overly sweet” about a person). The figurative sense is everyday Brazilian slang: o negócio melou (“the deal fell through”), melou o jogo (“the match was ruined”), a chegada dos pais melou a brincadeira (“the parents showing up spoiled the fun”). Picture something gummed up and stuck, and both meanings click — a sticky mess and a plan that gums up and stalls.