What is "burke"

Burke \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.

family name (first recorded 1066), from Anglo-Norman pronunciation of Old English 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.

n. (context British slang English) Variant spelling of berk. vb. 1 (context UK slang English) To murder in the same manner as Burke, to kill by suffocation 2 (context UK slang historical English) To murder for the same purpose as Burke, to kill in order to have a body to sell to anatomists, surgeons, etc. 3 (context UK slang English) To smother; to conceal, hush up, suppress.

Burke is a surname.

Burke may refer to:

Burke is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

The Burke series is an 18-book fiction series written by Andrew Vachss, centered on a man named Burke and his battle against child abusers. The series is written from Burke's perspective in the first person.

The first book, Flood, was published in 1985; the 18th and final novel, Another Life, was published in December 2008.

Burke is the protagonist of the Burke Series, a series of 18 crime novels written by Andrew Vachss.

An anti-hero, Burke is a career criminal, an orphan raised by the State who was abused throughout his childhood in state institutions and foster homes. Vachss has described Burke as "the prototypical abused child: hypervigilant, distrustful" yet fiercely loyal to his "family of choice". Burke lives in New York City, always on the edges of society. He makes his money as an off-the-books investigator, finding runaways, locating criminals for bounty, and running other assorted scams aimed at fleecing child abusers, pedophiles and other "freaks".

An attorney who represents the interests of abused children, Vachss has described the Burke series as a means to raise money for his legal business and also as a way to publicize the ugly reality of the effects of child abuse on individuals and society: