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 the 19th 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.[1]
Chevy Chase used the term "four flushing!" in the 1989 film National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. The term is also used by Pooter-the-Clown, actor Mike Starr, in another film Uncle 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 film Love 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". In the 1922 Harold Lloyd silent film, "Dr. Jack", C. Norman Hammond uses the phrase "a four-flusher!" to describe the doctor in charge of "The Sick-Little-Well-Girl" in the city.