A phrase used in England. Came across it in Alistair MacLean's Night Without End.
"What?" The sudden switch caught him momentarily off-balance. "What happened - you mean, how did it go for a burton? I've no idea at all, sir."From Michael Quinion's site (World Wide Words) there is a discussion of this enigmatic phrase that appears to have originated in World War II in the RAF to refer to a pilot killed in action but now referring more broadly to something gone missing or destroyed.
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