Dictionary

burke en · VERB · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• bûrk
• /bɜː(ɹ)k/
• (US) audio

Etymology

Eponymous, from William Burke.

Meanings

1. (Australia, Ireland, New-Zealand, UK, slang) To murder by suffocation.
   • As soon as the executioner proceeded to his duty, the cries of ‘Burke him, Burke him—give him no rope’... were vociferated... ‘Burke Hare too!’ 1829 February 2, Times (London), 3/5
2. (Australia, Ireland, New-Zealand, UK, historical, slang) To murder for the same purpose as Burke, to kill in order to have a body to sell to anatomists, surgeons, etc.
   • Perhaps he is Burked, and his body sold for nine pounds. 1833, T. Hook, Parson's Daughter, II. i. 26:
   • "I don’t know that," interrupted the landlady; "Williams is a good hanging name: there was Williams who murdered the Marr's family, and Williams who burked all those poor dear children; I dare say he is some relation of theirs; but to think of his coming to the White Hart—it's no place for his doings, I can tell him: he sha'n't poison his wife in my house; out he goes this very night—I'll take the letter to him myself." 1832, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, The Keepsake 1833, One Peep was Enough, pages 303–304:
   • ‘You don’t mean to say he was burked, Sam?’ said Mr. Pickwick, looking hastily round. 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “Chapter 31”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:
3. (Australia, Ireland, New-Zealand, UK, slang) To smother; to conceal, hush up, suppress.
   • The reporters left it out... Those who spoke in favour of the poor men, were what the reporters call burked. 1835, J. A. Roebuck, Dorchester Labourers, 6/1 (note):
   • He put away—burked—the Directors' letter, and went in to talk to Riley 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “A Bank Fraud,”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio, published 2005, page 128:
   • Socrates and Plato burked the issue. 1953, Robert Graves, Poems, section 4:

Forms

Deriveds

burker

Relateds

bishop

burke en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• bûrk
• /bɜː(ɹ)k/
• (US) audio

Meanings

1. (UK, alt-of, alternative, slang) Alternative form of berk.
   alt of berk

Forms