Meanings
present singular third person does a Reggie Perrin · participle present doing a Reggie Perrin · past did a Reggie Perrin · participle past done a Reggie Perrin
- UKslangTo fake one's own suicide.
2003, Anthony Hulse, Insanity Never Sleeps, Mediaworld PR Ltd, →ISBN, page 20, “Bloody hell, can’t you do a Reggie Perrin luv? Leave your clothes on Redcar beach and when I receive the dosh I’ll meet you in Australia?”
2 more examples
1998, "Whispering Bob", "There must be more to life than this!", uk.local.southwest, Usenet, Anyway, I went to Weymouth Yesterday, and sat on the beach thinking I could do a Reggie Perrin, so I took off all my clothes, and ran into the sea. I had planned to fake my own death, but for those of you who don't know, Weymouth's beach is a tad shallow, and is so for a considerable distance, well I ran as far as I could before my gonads rested in my throat cos of the cold and decided...THERE HAS TO BE MORE TO LIFE THAN THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2007, Anthony Rosen, An UnOrdinary Life: Memoirs of Anthony Rosen, Roundtuit Publishing, →ISBN, page 135, Following a mental breakdown in 1973, he did a “Reggie Perrin”, but was arrested in mistake for Lord Lucan (the peer wanted for murder) in Australia on Christmas Eve 1974.
Origin
From the name of the main character in the British sitcom The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, who faked his own suicide.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
do a Reggie Perrin. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/do%20a%20Reggie%20Perrin
“do a Reggie Perrin.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/do%20a%20Reggie%20Perrin. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “do a Reggie Perrin,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/do%20a%20Reggie%20Perrin.
Source: do a Reggie Perrin on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.