brat; naughty kid
Colloquial, mildly derogatory term for a mischievous or ill-behaved child. Often used with a mix of exasperation and affection.
The neighborhood brat scribbled on the wall again.
Do something about those little rascals.
Standard mixed kanji-katakana spelling; the katakana ガキ softens the formality and is typical for this colloquial word.
Rarely used kanji form; the characters 餓鬼 literally mean 'hungry ghost' but here form an ateji for ガキ (brat).
Compound of 悪 (わる, 'bad') and ガキ (がき, 'brat, kid'). ガキ derives from 餓鬼 (がき, 'hungry ghost'), a Buddhist term for a tormented spirit, which came to be used colloquially for unruly children.