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 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.
He had promised Battle Butte to give it something to talk about, but he had not meant to let the whisper pass that he was a four-flusher.
From The Sheriff's Son by Raine, William MacLeod
"You ain't got a cent, you four-flusher," he cried.
From The Mucker by Burroughs, Edgar Rice
A guy can be taught paintin', pinochle, politics and prohibition, but a first-class four-flusher is born that way!
From Kid Scanlan by Witwer, H. C. (Harry Charles)
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.
