Library / English Dictionary

BURKE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

United States frontierswoman and legendary figure of the Wild West noted for her marksmanship (1852-1903)

Synonyms:

Burk; Burke; Calamity Jane; Martha Jane Burk; Martha Jane Burke

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

frontierswoman (a woman who lives on the frontier)

Sense 2

Meaning:

British statesman famous for his oratory; pleaded the cause of the American colonists in British Parliament and defended the parliamentary system (1729-1797)

Synonyms:

Burke; Edmund Burke

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

orator; public speaker; rhetorician; speechifier; speechmaker (a person who delivers a speech or oration)

national leader; solon; statesman (a man who is a respected leader in national or international affairs)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Get rid of, silence, or suppress

Example:

burke an issue

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "burke" is one way to...):

conquer; stamp down; subdue; suppress (bring under control by force or authority)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Murder without leaving a trace on the body

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "burke" is one way to...):

bump off; dispatch; hit; murder; off; polish off; remove; slay (kill intentionally and with premeditation)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Credits

 Context examples: 

Standing by the table, with his finger in the page to keep the place, and his right arm flourishing above his head, Traddles, as Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Burke, Lord Castlereagh, Viscount Sidmouth, or Mr. Canning, would work himself into the most violent heats, and deliver the most withering denunciations of the profligacy and corruption of my aunt and Mr. Dick; while I used to sit, at a little distance, with my notebook on my knee, fagging after him with all my might and main.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Lower Burke Street proved to be a line of fine houses lying in the vague borderland between Notting Hill and Kensington.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)