Word.ws English Dictionary

burker

burker noun: one who burkes; one who murders in order to sell the body to an anatomist, surgeon, etc.

Noun

burker (plural burkers)

  1. (UK, historical, slang) One who burkes; one who murders in order to sell the body to an anatomist, surgeon, etc.
    • Science was in league with the "burkers" and "body-snatchers," […]1877, Dutton Cook, Doubleday's Children, page 90

Forms of burker

pluralburkers

Origin of burker

From burke + -er.

Questions about burker

What does burker mean?
Burker means one who burkes; one who murders in order to sell the body to an anatomist, surgeon, etc.
What part of speech is burker?
Burker is a noun.
What is the plural of burker?
The plural of burker is burkers.

Words near burker in the dictionary

  1. Burkeen
  2. Burkeens
  3. burkeite
  4. Burkel
  5. Burkels
  6. burker
  7. burkers
  8. Burkert
  9. Burkerts
  10. burkes
  11. Burkes Bridge

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: burker (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “burker.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/burker. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.