神出鬼没

神出鬼沒
shénchūguǐmò
idiom #23,245

Meanings

  1. 1 to appear and disappear unpredictably
  2. 2 elusive
  3. 3 here one moment and gone the next
  4. 4 like a ghost

Examples

Zhège xiǎotōu shénchūguǐmò, jǐngchá yīzhí zhuā bù dào tā.
This thief appears and disappears like a ghost, and the police have never been able to catch him.
Tā de xíngzōng shénchūguǐmò, méi rén zhīdào tā zài nǎlǐ.
His whereabouts are unpredictable — nobody knows where he is.

Tips

memory
(spirit/god) + (comes out) + (ghost) + (disappears). A spirit appears, then a ghost vanishes — together they describe something that materializes and dematerializes at will, like a supernatural being.

Stroke Order

shén
chū
guǐ
méi