Burke

views updated May 21 2018

Burke personal surname.
Burke and Hare noted murderers of the early 19th century. William Burke (1792–1829) was a bodysnatcher operating in Edinburgh with his accomplice William Hare, and was convicted of murdering those whose bodies he subsequently sold for dissection. He gave his name to the verb burke meaning, ‘kill secretly by suffocation or strangulation’, as Burke is said to have killed his victims.
Burke's Peerage a genealogical guide to peers and baronets, first published in 1826, by John Burke (1787–1848), Irish genealogical and heraldic writer.

burke

views updated Jun 11 2018

burke suffocate, stifle; ‘smother’, hush up. XIX. f. name of William Burke, executed at Edinburgh in 1829 for smothering people in order to sell their bodies for dissection.

More From encyclopedia.com