burke

present singular third person burkes · participle present burking · participle past burked · past burked

1. AustraliaIrelandNew ZealandUKslangTo murder by suffocation.

   As soon as the executioner proceeded to his duty, the cries of ‘Burke him, Burke him—give him no rope’... were vociferated... ‘Burke Hare too!’

   1829 February 2, Times (London), 3/5

2. AustraliaIrelandNew ZealandUKhistoricalslangTo murder for the same purpose as Burke, to kill in order to have a body to sell to anatomists, surgeons, etc.

   Perhaps he is Burked, and his body sold for nine pounds.

   1833, T. Hook, Parson's Daughter, II. i. 26

   2 more examples

   "I don’t know that," interrupted the landlady; "Williams is a good hanging name: there was Williams who murdered the Marr's family, and Williams who burked all those poor dear children; I dare say he is some relation of theirs; but to think of his coming to the White Hart—it's no place for his doings, I can tell him: he sha'n't poison his wife in my house; out he goes this very night—I'll take the letter to him myself."

   1832, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, The Keepsake 1833, One Peep was Enough, pages 303–304

   ‘You don’t mean to say he was burked, Sam?’ said Mr. Pickwick, looking hastily round.

   1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “Chapter 31”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC

3. AustraliaIrelandNew ZealandUKslangTo smother; to conceal, hush up, suppress.

   Socrates and Plato burked the issue.

   1953, Robert Graves, Poems, section 4

   2 more examples

   The reporters left it out... Those who spoke in favour of the poor men, were what the reporters call burked.

   1835, J. A. Roebuck, Dorchester Labourers, 6/1 (note)

   He put away—burked—the Directors' letter, and went in to talk to Riley

   1888, Rudyard Kipling, “A Bank Fraud,”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio, published 2005, page 128

plural burkes

1. UKalternativeslangAlternative form of berk.

plural Burkes · alternative de Burgh · alternative Burgh · alternative Bourke · alternative Burgo · alternative Burk · alternative de Burgo · alternative de Búrca · alternative Bourke

1. countableuncountableA topographical surname from Anglo-Norman for someone who lived in a fortified place.
2. A number of places in the United States:
   1. countableuncountableA ghost town in Shoshone County, Idaho.
   2. countableuncountableA town and village therein, in Franklin County, New York.
   3. countableuncountableA small city, the county seat of Gregory County, South Dakota.
   4. countableuncountableA minor city in Angelina County, Texas.
   5. countableuncountableA town in Caledonia County, Vermont, named after Edmund Burke.
   6. countableuncountableA census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia.
   7. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Grant County, Washington.
   8. countableuncountableA town and unincorporated community therein, in Dane County, Wisconsin, named after Edmund Burke.
3. countableuncountableA local government area in north-west Queensland, Australia, named after Robert O'Hara Burke; in full, the Shire of Burke.