Burking

1 definition found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Burke \Burke\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Burked}; p. pr. & vb. n.
     {Burking}.] [From one Burke of Edinburgh, who committed the
     crime in 1829.]
     1. 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.


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     2. To dispose of quietly or indirectly; to suppress; to
        smother; to shelve; as, to burke a parliamentary question.
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              The court could not burke an inquiry, supported by
              such a mass of a affidavits.          --C. Reade.
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