burke Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun British statesman famous for his oratory; pleaded the cause of the American colonists in British Parliament and defended the parliamentary system (1729-1797)
    Edmund Burke.
  2. noun United States frontierswoman and legendary figure of the Wild West noted for her marksmanship (1852-1903)
    Calamity Jane; Martha Jane Burk; Burk; Martha Jane Burke.
  3. verb murder without leaving a trace on the body
  4. verb get rid of, silence, or suppress
    • burke an issue

WordNet

Burke transitive verb
Etymology
From one Burke of Edinburgh, who committed the crime in 1829.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Burked ; present participle & verbal noun Burking
Definitions
  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.
  2. To dispose of quietly or indirectly; to suppress; to smother; to shelve; as, to burke a parliamentary question.
    The court could not burke an inquiry, supported by such a mass of a affidavits. C. Reade.

Webster 1913