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Burke

.

To murder by placing something over the mouth of the person attacked to prevent his giving alarm. So called from Burke, an Irishman, who used to suffocate his victims and murder them for the sole purpose of selling the dead bodies to surgeons for dissection. Hanged at Edinburgh, 1829.

To burke a question. To strangle it in its birth. The publication was burked suppressed before it was circulated.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Burchardise
Burchell (Mr.)
Burd (Helen)
Burden of a Song
Bure
Bureaucracy
Burglar [burg-larron]
Burgundian
Burial of an Ass
Buridan’s Ass
Burke
Burkers
Burl, Burler
Burlaw or Byrlaw
Burlesque
Burlond
Burn
Burn
Burning Crown (A)
Burnt
Burnt Candlemas Day