from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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.
[1913 Webster]
2. To dispose of quietly or indirectly; to suppress; to
smother; to shelve; as, to burke a parliamentary question.
[1913 Webster]
The court could not burke an inquiry, supported by
such a mass of a affidavits. --C. Reade.
[1913 Webster]