burke, burk verb murder someone and sell their body to a medical school or doctor for dissection: He’s a dodder [Cant ‘doctor’]! He’ll burke ye. I’ll bet ye it’s some o the young doctors fae the college. If ye go tae his hoose, laddie, that’ll be the last ye’ll ever been seen again!; Daddy, tell us a wee story when you were near burkit by the body snatchers 20. Compare burker etymology: derived from William Burke of Burke and Hare the nineteeth-century body snatchers, also known as The West Port Murderers, who often targeted the Traveller community as their victims; attested by DW |