The Collaborative International Dictionary
Burked
Burke \Burke\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Burked; p. pr. & vb. n. Burking.] [From one Burke of Edinburgh, who committed the crime in 1829.]
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.
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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.
Wiktionary
burked
vb. (en-past of: burke)
WordNet
burked
adj. suppressed quietly or indirectly [syn: burked(p)]
Usage examples of "burked".
And he had been burked, murdered, blotted out, in order to make room for a bally Scotchman!