Definition of "burke"

As soon as the executioner proceeded to his duty, the cries of ‘Burke him, Burke him—give him no rope’... were vociferated... ‘Burke Hare too!’

1829 February 2, Times (London), 3/5

"I don’t know that," interrupted the landlady; "Williams is a good hanging name: there was Williams who murdered the Marr's family, and Williams who burked all those poor dear children; I dare say he is some relation of theirs; but to think of his coming to the White Hart—it's no place for his doings, I can tell him: he sha'n't poison his wife in my house; out he goes this very night—I'll take the letter to him myself."

1832, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, The Keepsake 1833, One Peep was Enough, pages 303–304

Perhaps he is Burked, and his body sold for nine pounds.

1833, T. Hook, Parson's Daughter, II. i. 26

‘You don’t mean to say he was burked, Sam?’ said Mr. Pickwick, looking hastily round.

1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “Chapter 31”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837

The reporters left it out... Those who spoke in favour of the poor men, were what the reporters call burked.

1835, J. A. Roebuck, Dorchester Labourers, 6/1 (note)

He put away—burked—the Directors' letter, and went in to talk to Riley

1888, Rudyard Kipling, “A Bank Fraud,”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio, published 2005, page 128

Socrates and Plato burked the issue.

1953, Robert Graves, Poems, section 4