Burke

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /bɜː(ɹ)k/

Definitions

1. To secretly kill or cause a person or thing to disappear without detection ; to suppress or stifle something, such as a discussion or expression
2. To cause a death or disappearance in a clandestine way ; to forcibly silence or prevent something from continuing or developing
3. To covertly eliminate or make something vanish ; to hold back, restrain, or smother an action, feeling, or communication

Etymology: William Burke was an Irish-born labourer who, with his partner William Hare, murdered at least sixteen people in Edinburgh in 1827 and 1828 and sold the bodies to Robert Knox, an anatomy lecturer, for dissection. Anatomists needed fresh cadavers for teaching, and the trade in corpses was legal but supply was short. Burke and Hare's killings were discovered and Burke was hanged in January 1829, after which his name was attached to the crime itself. The verb grew from that notoriety. To "burke" someone came to mean to kill them in a way that left no trace, or more loosely to smother a matter quietly before it could come to light. The murders were carried out by suffocation, which is why the method and the name became linked: a victim could be silenced without the usual marks of violence. Over the following decades the sense widened from literal killing to suppressing an idea, a scandal, or a debate, so that a proposal could be "burked" in committee just as a person could be disposed of in a back room.

Synonyms: murder, kill