装神弄鬼 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• (lit.) to pretend to be in contact with supernatural beings ; (fig.) to create a false sense of mystery; to play tricks to deceive or scare others; to engage in hocus-pocus

Character by character

• 装zhuāngdress, clothes, attire; to wear, to install
• 神shéngod, spirit; divine, mysterious, supernatural
• 弄nòngto do; to mock, to tease; to play with
• 鬼guǐghost; demon; sly, mischievous

Idioms sharing a character

• 乔装打扮 qiáo zhuāng dǎ bàn
• 女扮男装 nǚ bàn nán zhuāng
• 男扮女装 nán bàn nǚ zhuāng
• 装傻充愣 zhuāng shǎ chōng lèng
• 装模作样 zhuāng mó zuò yàng
• 装疯卖傻 zhuāng fēng mài shǎ
• 装穷叫苦 zhuāng qióng jiào kǔ
• 装点门面 zhuāng diǎn mén miàn
• 凶神恶煞 xiōng shén è shà
• 全神贯注 quán shén guàn zhù

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.