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Pendurar as chuteiras

Portuguese

Meaning

To hang up one's boots / To retire

Example

Depois de 40 anos na medicina, meu pai pendurou as chuteiras.

After 40 years in medicine, my father hung up his boots.

Origin

The expression comes straight from football. When a player ends his professional career, he symbolically "hangs up his boots" — the chuteiras, the studded football boots he will no longer wear on the pitch.