Mamãe tentando sair de casa com o Gael

What does “chinelo” mean in Brazilian Portuguese?

O chinelo — masculine — is what a Brazilian slips on to leave the house: rubber flip-flops, the Havaianas kind. English “slipper” sends learners wrong, since the fluffy indoor version is a pantufa. Chinelos go to the bakery, the beach and the neighbour’s front door, and getting a small child into them is the standard last obstacle before anyone actually leaves.

The word carries a whole idiom set. Deixar alguém no chinelo is to outclass someone completely, “leave them in the dust,” and a chinelada is a smack with one — the mother’s legendary weapon in Brazilian family comedy. In the clip that is precisely the delay: vai lá dentro pegar teu chinelo, “go inside and get your flip-flop.”