burke
UK /bɜːk/ · US /bɝk/ verb, proper noun
Also a form of burgh
Forms burkes burking burked de Burgh Burgh Bourke Burgo Burk de Burgo de Búrca
- verb (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, slang) To murder by suffocation.
- verb (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, slang, historical) To murder for the same purpose as Burke, to kill in order to have a body to sell to anatomists, surgeons, etc.
- verb (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, slang) To smother; to conceal, hush up, suppress.
- proper noun A topographical surname from Anglo-Norman for someone who lived in a fortified place.
- proper noun A ghost town in Shoshone County, Idaho.
- proper noun A town and village therein, in Franklin County, New York.
- proper noun A small city, the county seat of Gregory County, South Dakota.
- proper noun A minor city in Angelina County, Texas.
- proper noun A town in Caledonia County, Vermont, named after Edmund Burke.
- proper noun A census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Grant County, Washington.
Synonyms
Edmund Burke Burk Martha Jane Burk Martha Jane Burke Calamity Jane
Etymology
Eponymous, from William Burke.
From an Anglo-Norman pronunciation of burg.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To murder by suffocation, or so as to produce few marks of violence, for the purpose of obtaining a body to be sold for dissection.
- verb To dispose of quietly or indirectly; to suppress; to smother; to shelve; as, to burke a parliamentary question.
Etymology [From one Burke of Edinburgh, who committed the crime in 1829.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “burke”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details