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Webster 1913 Edition
Burke
Burke
,Verb.
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.
2.
To dispose of quietly or indirectly; to suppress; to smother; to shelve;
as, to
. burke
a parliamentary questionThe court could not
burke
an inquiry, supported by such a mass of a affidavits. C. Reade.