Weekend at Bernie's

Weekend at Bernie's noun: a situation in which someone pretends that a dead person (or by extension, any entity) is still alive.

Noun

Weekend at Bernie's (plural not attested)

(idiomatic, no plural, slang) A situation in which someone pretends that a dead person (or by extension, any entity) is still alive.
- A Weekend at Bernie's acted out on the gray and black stage of frozen stone. Someone laughed and was immediately hushed by their own sense of shame.2005 February 1, Nevada Barr, High Country, Penguin, →ISBN
- All they had to show for themselves was a Weekend at Bernie's economy, with sunglasses and Hawaiian shirts on zombie companies supposed to give the impression of life and health2009 February 9, Thomas E. Woods, Jr., Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and the Government Bailout Will Make Things Worse, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN

Weekend at Bernie's (third-person singular simple present Weekend at Bernie's, present participle Weekend at Bernie's-ing, simple past and past participle Weekend at Bernie's-ed or Weekend at Bernie's'd)

(slang) To move a dead body, or otherwise a nonresponsive person (such as due to illness or intoxication), while pretending that the person is alive and conscious.
- I could only imagine that Rupert L. was standing Rupert P. upright with one hand and waving Rupert P.'s arm with the other. (And seeing the pictures later, I was totally right.) Rupert P. had been Weekend at Bernie's-ed after all.2016 May 19, Goldy Moldavsky, Kill the Boy Band, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN, page 234
- After being Weekend at Bernie's'd by his closest doctors, Washington wasn't feeling right. He told the three doctors that he felt like his life was over and to let him go.2017 May 9, Dave Anthony, Gareth Reynolds, The United States of Absurdity: Untold Stories from American History, Ten Speed Press, →ISBN, page 110

John McCain went so far as to say he would pull a Weekend at Bernie's if Chairman Greenspan died while McCain was president.2018, Robert X. Browning, The Year in C-SPAN Archives Research, Purdue University Press, →ISBN, page 47:
Jane supported his weight on one side, while Ethan propped up the other, and they practically had to Weekend at Bernie's him down the alley between the ice cream parlor and the praline shop.2020 December 7, Carrie Pulkinen, Santa Got Run Over by a Vampire: A Paranormal Romantic Comedy, Carrie Pulkinen:
To get her home and past the eagle-eyed scrutiny of our mother the morning after, I'd had to Weekend at Bernie's her, waving her arms and nodding her head at questions2024 February 1, Ashley Winstead, Fool Me Once: A simmering, sizzling second-chance romcom from TikTok sensation Ashley Winstead...
Mostly we talk about Realm of the Ravager or Marianne or the crackpot theory that our principal is being Weekend at Bernie's-d.2024 July 30, Amelia Diane Coombs, All Alone with You, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 129:

third-person singular present	Weekend at Bernie's
present participle	Weekend at Bernie's-ing
past participle	Weekend at Bernie's-ed
past	Weekend at Bernie's-ed
past participle	Weekend at Bernie's'd
past	Weekend at Bernie's'd

From the movie Weekend at Bernie's (1989), in which two men attempt to conceal the death of their boss by puppeteering his corpse.

What does Weekend at Bernie's mean?: Weekend at Bernie's means a situation in which someone pretends that a dead person (or by extension, any entity) is still alive.
How do you use Weekend at Bernie's in a sentence?: John McCain went so far as to say he would pull a Weekend at Bernie's if Chairman Greenspan died while McCain was president.
What part of speech is Weekend at Bernie's?: Weekend at Bernie's can be a noun or a verb.

Adapted from Wiktionary: Weekend at Bernie's (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “Weekend at Bernie's.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/weekend_at_bernie%27s. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.