burke

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

burke, v. t. [From one Burke of Edinburgh, who committed the crime in 1829.].

•  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]
•  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."  [1913 Webster]

ROGET THESAURUS

burke

Killing

VB kill, put to death, slay, shed blood, murder, assassinate, butcher, slaughter, victimize, immolate, massacre, take away life, deprive of life, make away with, put an end to, despatch, dispatch, burke, settle, do for, strangle, garrote, hang, throttle, choke, stifle, suffocate, stop the breath, smother, asphyxiate, drown, saber, cut down, cut to pieces, cut the throat, jugulate, stab, run through the body, bayonet, eviscerate, put to the sword, put to the edge of the sword, shoot dead, blow one's brains out, brain, knock on the head, stone, lapidate, give a deathblow, deal a deathblow, give a quietus, give a coupe de grace, behead, bowstring, electrocute, gas, hunt, shoot, cut off, nip in the bud, launch into eternity, send to one's last account, sign one's death warrant, strike the death knell of, give no quarter, pour out blood like water, decimate, run amuck, wade knee deep in blood, imbrue one's hands in blood, die a violent death, welter in one's blood, dash out one's brains, blow out one's brains, commit suicide, kill oneself, make away with oneself, put an end to oneself, put an end to it all.