burked

Adjective

Open English WordNet

Adjective (1)

  1. suppressed quietly or indirectlyOpposite publicisedSimilar suppressed
Word of the day · Sep 29About this word
haphazardadjective

What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz

Advertisement

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

“burked” is listed under Burke.

Burke (…), transitive verb [past tense & past participle Burked (…); present participle & verbal noun Burking.]

Origin: 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.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54

Advertisement