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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)