Word.ws English Dictionary

doing a runner

doing a runner is the present participle and gerund of do a runner.

Meaning of do a runner

Verb

do a runner (third-person singular simple present does a runner, present participle doing a runner, simple past did a runner, past participle done a runner)

  1. (UK, informal) To leave somewhere hurriedly, especially to avoid paying.
    • A fortnight ago, in his “Money talks” column, Patrick Collinson related how, at an airport restaurant earlier this month, he was told by a waiter that they had to pick up the tab if a customer did a runner. Yet the company in charge vehemently denied the account, saying: “This does not take place.”2018 March 24, “True or false? 'If you do a runner, the waiter has to pay your bill'”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

Questions about doing a runner

What is doing a runner the present participle and gerund of?
Doing a runner is the present participle and gerund of do a runner.

Words near doing a runner in the dictionary

  1. doing a moonlight flit
  2. doing a never
  3. doing a number on
  4. doing a perish
  5. doing a power of good
  6. doing a runner
  7. doing a slow burn
  8. doing away with
  9. doing battle
  10. doing bird
  11. doing bits

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: doing a runner (page history and authors); do a runner (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “doing a runner.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/doing_a_runner. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.