- Four flushing
Four Flusher is a
pejorative term for a person who makes empty boasts or who continually lies.The term "four flushing" traces its origins to the game of
Poker during the19th Century . "Four flushing" originally referred to a person who would misrepresent that they had a flush - a poker hand comprised of five cards all of one suit ("hearts", "spades", "clubs" or "diamonds") - when they only had four cards of one suit. [ [http://archives.stupidquestion.net/sq91902fourflusher.html Stupid Question Aug. 22, 2002 By John Ruch: What is the meaning of the term “four-flusher” or “four-flushing”?] ]Chevy Chase used the term "four flushing!" in the 1989 filmNational Lampoon's Christmas Vacation . The term is also used by Pooter-the-Clown, actorMike Starr , in another filmUncle Buck of the same release year. The phrase is also used in the 1967 Walt Disney version of the Jungle Book. Bagheera the panther calls Baloo the bear a four flusher. James Cagney uses the phrase angrily and sarcastically in the 1955 filmLove Me or Leave Me (film) . In the 1926 silent film, "The Show Off", the term "four flusher" is used by Louise Brooks to describe her next door neighbor's son-in-law. William S. Burroughs uses the term "four-flusher" to describe some of the characters that populate his first novel,Junkie . Hot Lips Houlihan, played by Loretta Swit, uses it to insult Frank Burns (played by Larry Linville) in the 1973 "M*A*S*H" episode "Dear Dad ... Three".References
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