Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a prostitute.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 86: Croupière, f. A prostitute; ‘a burerk’.

2. a wife.

1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 267: The brick house agin the bridge is bene if you can catch the ‘burerk’ (mistress) at home.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 244/2: They are most successful when the ‘swell’ is not at home; if they can meet with the ‘Burerk’ (Mistress).
1883		press cutting in J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era (1909) 56/2: When your burick gets boozed, smashes the crockery, and then calls in her blooming old ma to protect her from your cruelty, that’s the time to do a guy.

3. a woman, esp. when flashily-dressed.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 90: BURERK, a lady, a showily dressed woman.
1873		Sl. Dict. 361: Sarah Chesham the Essex burick for the Poisoning Job.
1881		Newcastle Courant 25 Nov. 6/5: She can patter as good as any Burerk I ever seed.
1887		Lancs. Eve. Post 5 May 1/7: burerk: well dressed lady.