to eat crow, to be put on the spot
Tive que pagar sapo na frente de todo mundo na reunião.
I had to eat crow in front of everyone at the meeting.
Pagar sapo literally means "to pay a toad," and like the better-known engolir sapo ("to swallow a toad"), it leans on the toad as an image of something repugnant one is forced to put up with — here, the discomfort of being embarrassed or put on the spot, or of taking the blame for something.
Falando's Idiom Trainer teaches you to recognize idiom meanings and create sentences using them, so you can speak like a Brazilian.
