搞鬼
gǎo guǐ · HSK 7
to make mischief
👻 搞 (to do) + 鬼 (ghost) = doing ghost-stuff, i.e. sneaky mischief
搞 means to do or stir up, and 鬼 (ghost) extends to anything shady or underhanded. Together they mean stirring up ghostly tricks — secret mischief or shenanigans done behind someone's back.
搞 — hand radical 扌 + 高 (gāo, tall)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The hand radical 扌on the left signals an action done with the hands, while 高 on the right gives the sound (gāo → gǎo). Originally meaning to do or make by hand, it broadened in modern Chinese to a general verb meaning to do, get, or carry out.
鬼 — head 田 + legs 儿 + 厶
鬼 is a pictograph of a figure with a large, eerie head (田-shape) atop human legs (儿), with 厶 suggesting a swirling or sinister element. It originally depicted a masked spirit or the soul of the dead. The meaning broadened to 'ghost, demon,' and figuratively 'sneaky' or 'clever.'