Word of the Day

verb

We found an old newspaper article in which a candidate promised he would never "four-flush" or mislead voters.

"Royal is a not quite legal lawyer, four-flushing his way around New York, long separated from his wife and three children…." — From a review by Stanley Kauffman in The New Republic, December 31, 2001

The term "four-flush" comes to us from stud poker. In that game, a player is dealt one card face down and four cards face up, with betting taking place each time a face-up card is dealt. A four-card flush — that is, all four cards of the same suit — is worthless in poker; it takes five cards to make a flush. A player who has four cards of the same suit showing is in a good position to bluff. Pretending to hold a flush with four cards showing — ''four-flushing'' — came to be a skill among gamblers, one so common that the term spread to everyday use to describe the actions of one who makes false or dishonest claims.

Test Your Vocabulary: What poker-related expression can also mean "to oppose or resist change"? The answer is ...

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