shameless, to have some nerve
Carlos é tão cara de pau. Ele está paquerando a mulher do chefe!
Carlos is so shameless. He's flirting with the boss's wife!
The phrase literally means "wooden face." A human face usually betrays shame, fear or embarrassment; wood is rigid, hard and expressionless. To call someone cara de pau is to picture a face that stays impassive while lying or misbehaving, feeling no shame at all.
Source: Todoprosa (Sérgio Rodrigues).
Falando's Idiom Trainer teaches you to recognize idiom meanings and create sentences using them, so you can speak like a Brazilian.
