Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a cheat, a bluffer.

[1885		Oshkosh (WI) Daily Northwestern 16 Apr. 3/2: The alleged occupation of Penjdah by the Russians is the very thing England has been so nettled about [...] and such a concession is looked upon as a virtual back-down by the British government. The great bluff game, where both sides were drawing to a four flush, has been turned against the bluffer].
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 77: I never see one o’ them fellows yet that was n’t a four-flush.
1902		‘Hugh McHugh’ Back to the Woods 74: I [...] heard myself telling her I was nothing but a fawn-colored four-flush.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 158: When it comes to figurin’ on what women or horses’ll do, I’m a four-flusher.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Jan. 2nd sect. 2/4: M’Intosh is a bluff and a four-flusher and his reported attempts to meet me [...] and desire to secure the big fight are hot air.
1913		T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 26 Dec. [synd. cartoon] Oh yes, I do meet 4 flushers. Once in a while I meet a millionaire like you .
1915		O.R. Cohen ‘The Wild Man’ All-Story 28 Aug. 🌐 One of these days I’m going to show you up for the four-flush you are!
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 261: Mr Coston called Mr Dawson a pie-faced rubber-necked four-flusher.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 406: Come on, you dog-gone, bullnecked, beetlebrowed, hogjowled, peanutbrained, weaseleyed four flushers, false alarm and excess baggage!
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 83: Who says Mike Monday is a four-flush and a yahoo?
1928		Amazing Stories Quarterly Fall 540/2: Everybody has heard of Pontius Bragg - the most colossal bluff, four-flusher and egoist that ever tried to get his names in the papers.
1931		W.N. Burns One-Way Ride 184: You are just a four-flush. You shoot off your mouth too much.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 69: This club protects its members carefully against imposters and fourflushers.
1955		P. Rabe Benny Muscles In (2004) 284: You crazy four-flusher [...] You think I’m a dumb country cop, huh?
1967		E. Shepard Doom Pussy 174: Four-flushers are nil in my book.
1972		J. Flaherty Chez Joey (1974) 220: In the prissy labor field of today, composed of slick four-flushers and punky bureaucrats.
1981		G.V. Higgins Rat on Fire (1982) 15: I am not so stupid that even I do not know that Four-flusher Fein is not your very best legal-type counsellor.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 196: Get outta here, ya four-flusher.
2001		H.E. Adkins Scar 92: But, if there is anything I can’t stand, it’s a four-flusher who sets out to cheat me in the first place.

2. a braggart, a boaster.

1904		Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 255: Four-Flusher. One who poses for effect.
[1906		Sun (NY) 9 Sept. 3/2: Another ten minute spiel wasted on a three-flush that looked like every button on a number and keno].
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Uplifter’ in Ade’s Fables 102: [...] something that would show up Charley Klein and Gus Thomas and all the other Four-Flushers who were raking in Royalties under False Pretenses.
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of The Toilsome Ascent’ in Ade’s Fables 181: His Detractors called him a Four-Flush and a False Alarm.
1915		Van Loan ‘Sporting Doctor’ in Taking the Count 47: There’s a lot of good lightweights who want that four-flusher.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice in Hamilton Men of the Und. 266: So far as I’m concerned you can make it a hunded and fifteen, you old four flusher.
1930		E. Glyn Flirt and Flapper 91: Flapper: New people are coming up each year [...] if one doesn’t put enough pep into her parties, you go to the next four-flushers .
1933		W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 9: This was what he loved to do, corner a lying fourflusher. Imagine this bumpkin owning Gold Leaf!
1944		T. Thursday ‘Base on Balds’ in Sports Winners Spring 🌐 I think that mug is a very big four-flusher and besides that his hair ain’t real.
1953		‘John Eagle’ Hoodlums (2021) 36: street. Kirk easy, lurking, waiting. Hello, you four-flusher, and one left, a hard one. Martin was a sucker for a feint to the stomach.

3. something worthless.

1910

J. London ‘Flush of Gold’ Complete Short Stories (1993) II 1296: Maybe you don’t know how the creek turned out to be a four-flusher; but the prospects were good at the time.

4. (also four of one suit) a scrounger, one who fails to pay due debts.

1915		Daily Trib. (Bismarck, ND) 13 Apr. 4/5: If you can’t become something you are a mutt, a mollycoddle, a four-flusher, excess baggage, a false alarm and a mere cipher.
1917		R. Lardner Gullible’s Travels 80: You remember me tellin’ you about [...] me takin’ my Missus and her sister, Bess, and four of one suit named Bishop to see The Three Kings?
1939		J. Weidman What’s In It For Me? 348: I’m gonna look for that little four-flushing swine until I find him.
1941		A. Lomax Mister Jelly Roll (1952) 37: My father was a fourflusher, who left me with nothing.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 60: What a crew! Mooches, fags, fourflushers, stool pigeons, bums – unwilling to work, unable to steal, always short of money, always whining for credit.
1962		T. Berger Reinhart in Love (1963) 142: You’re a [...] four-flusher, a swelcher.