burking
n.— «A medical examiner testified during the trial that someone used great force that cut and bruised Carissimi’s face as she was held face-down on a muddy trail through woods on the island park in the Detroit River near downtown. He described a method called “Burking” where a killer sits on top of a victim to reduce lung capacity and accelerate asphyxiation.» —“Woman withdraws plea in Belle Isle slaying” by Doug Guthrie Detroit News (Michigan) July 24, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In a sweaty letter to a friend while vacationing on the island of Elba, poet Dylan Thomas wrote colorfully and expressively about a terrible heat wave, complaining that, among other things, “My brains are hanging out like a dog’s tongue.” This is...
Some gems in this week’s mailbag: Following up on our conversation with a caller hoping to promote less-violent alternatives to the phrase kill two birds with one stone, a listener who grew up in India wrote in with one from her native language. In...
Burking was inspired by Burke and Hare, the Edinburgh mass murderers who sold bodies to doctors for medical experiments. They smothered their victims to minimize damage to the corpses. Once Burke and Hare were found out and arrested, the method of murder came to be called “burking.”