four-flusher
Britishnoun
Explanation
Anyone who plays poker knows five cards in a single suit is called a flush. What happens if you have only four of that suit? A whole lot of nothing, which gives us the word four-flusher, a person bluffing at cards, or someone who seems promising, but isn't. Use four-flusher as a synonym for conman, trickster, or fake. You won't hear it used very often these days, but hop in a time machine (a four-flusher will sell you a ticket), travel back to the Old West, kick open the bat-wing doors of the local saloon, and you might hear four-flusher slung across a card table as a brawl gets underway. You might even hear it used as a verb, as in, "You better stop four-flushing, or I'll run you out of this town on a pole."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He should be unmasked as the four-flusher he really is.
From Time Magazine Archive
I ain't such a four-flusher as to lay down my hand before I've played it out.
From Steve Yeager by Raine, William MacLeod
This extra dresser is a four-flusher, for he is trying to appear as something that he is not.
From Dollars and Sense by Hunter, William Crosbie
The only time a four-flusher pays off is when he hits a new town.
From Kid Scanlan by Witwer, H. C. (Harry Charles)
I always thought you were more or less of a counterfeit and a four-flusher, anyhow, didn't you, fellows?'
From Taking Chances by Cullen, Clarence L.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
