to cry one's eyes out, to whine
Depois que gastou tudo em besteira, ficou chorando as pitangas.
After spending everything on nonsense, he was crying his eyes out.
The most repeated account holds that chorar as pitangas is a Brazilian reworking of the older Portuguese chorar lágrimas de sangue ("to cry tears of blood"). The word pitanga comes from Tupi and evokes the colour red, so the blood-red tears became the deep-red pitanga cherry — and, by extension, eyes red from too much crying.
Source: Gramática.
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