Buscando las llaves en el bolso imposible de mamá

What does “petado” mean in Spain?

In Spain, “petado” means packed, crammed, stuffed to bursting — a bag, a bar, a train at rush hour. It comes from “petar,” from Catalan, with the underlying image of something so full it is about to burst. The same word can mean stuffed from eating (“estoy petado”), wiped out tired, or that a device has crashed (“se ha petado el móvil”). Context tells you which.

Here someone digging through a mother’s bottomless handbag groans “esto está petado” — it’s jammed full. This is very much Peninsular slang; a Latin American speaker would more likely say “lleno,” “repleto” or “a reventar.” Young Spaniards also use “lo peta” / “lo petó” to mean something is a smash hit: “esa canción lo está petando” (that song is killing it).