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BURKE

 - 8 dictionary results

burke

  [burk]
Use BURKE in a Sentence
–verb (used with object), burked, burk⋅ing.
1. to murder, as by suffocation, so as to leave no or few marks of violence.
2. to suppress or get rid of by some indirect maneuver.
Origin:
after W. Burke, hanged in 1829 in Edinburgh for murders of this kind

Related forms:
burker, burk⋅ite  [bur-kahyt] , noun

Burke

  [burk]
–noun
1. Billie (Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke), 1886–1970, U.S. actress.
2. Edmund, 1729–97, Irish statesman, orator, and writer.
3. Kenneth Du⋅va [doo-vey] , 1897–1993, U.S. literary critic.

Burk

  [burk]
–noun
Martha Jane, 1852?–1903, Calamity Jane.
Also, Burke.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To BURKE
Burk or Burke   (bûrk)   
American frontierswoman and legendary figure of the Wild West. Often dressed in men's clothing, she was reputed to be a crack shot and an expert rider.
burke   (bûrk)   
tr.v.   burked, burk·ing, burkes

  1. To suppress or extinguish quietly; stifle: burked the investigation by failing to reappoint the commission.

  2. To avoid; disregard: "To make The Tempest a tragic and depressing play he was willing to burke all the elements that made it the exact opposite" (Robert M. Adams).

  3. To execute (someone) by suffocation so as to leave the body intact and suitable for dissection.


[After William Burke (1792-1829), Irish-born grave robber and murderer.]
Burke   (bûrk)   
Irish-born British politician and writer. Famous for his oratory, he pleaded the cause of the American colonists in Parliament and was instrumental in developing the notions of party responsibility and a loyal opposition within the parliamentary system. His major work, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), voices his opposition to the excesses of the French experience.
Burke, Martha Jane  
See Martha Jane Burk.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

Burke  (v.)
family name (first recorded 1066) is from Anglo-Norman pronunciation of O.E. burgh. Not common in England itself, but it took root in Ireland, where William de Burgo went in 1171 with Henry II and later became Earl of Ulster. As shorthand for a royalty reference book, it represents "A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the United Kingdom," first issued 1826, compiled by John Burke (1787-1848). As a verb meaning "murder by smothering," it is abstracted from William Burk, executed in Edinburgh 1829 for murdering several persons to sell their bodies for dissection.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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