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.
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.