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bunker

noun
/ˈbʌŋ.kə/UK/ˈbʊŋ.kə//ˈbʌŋ.kɚ/CA

Etymology

The origin of the noun is uncertain; the earliest sense is sense 6.1 (“box or chest, the lid of which serves as a seat”), from Scots bunker (“bench; pew; window-seat; sand pit (especially in golf); coal receptacle; sleeping berth, bunk”), from Early Scots bunker, bunkur, bonker (“a chest or box, often serving as a seat”), probably from Old Norse bunki (“a heap”) (probably whence bunk (“sleeping berth in a ship, train, etc.”)), from Proto-Germanic *bunkô (“a heap, pile; a bump, lump, a crowd”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰenǵʰ- (“thick”) or *bʰeg- (“to billow, swell; to arch, bend, curve (?)”). Compare Middle Low German bunge (“drum, container”), Middle High German bunge (“drum”). Sense 1 (“hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks”) was derived from German Bunker during World War II, which was itself from bunker (“large bin or container for storing coal”) (sense 5). The verb is derived from the noun.

  1. borrowed from Bunker
  2. derived from *bʰenǵʰ-✻ — “thick”
  3. derived from *bunkô✻ — “a heap, pile; a bump, lump, a crowd”
  4. derived from bunki — “a heap”
  5. derived from bunker
  6. derived from bunker — “bench; pew; window-seat; sand pit (especially in golf); coal receptacle; sleeping berth, bunk”

Definitions

  1. A hardened shelter, often partly buried or fully underground, designed to protect the…

    A hardened shelter, often partly buried or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks.

    • The military built a bunker to help evacuate the citizens safely from the bombings.

  2. A compartment for storing coal for the ship's boilers

    A compartment for storing coal for the ship's boilers; or a tank for storing fuel oil for the ship's engines.

  3. The coal compartment on a tank engine

    The coal compartment on a tank engine; it can also refer to that on a tender engine.

    • The bunkers of these engines hold enough coal for one round journey of 120½ miles, and water is taken in each direction at Hexham.
    • The superstructure of the tender is modified by the removal of the side raves, and compartments for the fire-irons are formed on each side of the coal bunker.
  4. ›+ 15 more definitions

    1. Ellipsis of bunker oil (usually plural).

      • The vessel is taking on bunkers.

    2. A hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow.

    3. An obstacle used to block an opposing player's view and field of fire.

    4. A large bin or container for storing coal, often built outdoors in the yard of a house.

      • There used to be a coal bunker at the back of the house - it was demolished years ago.

    5. A sort of box or chest, as in a window, the lid of which serves as a seat.

      • A winnock-bunker in the eaſt, / There ſat auld Nick, in ſhape o' beaſt; […]
      • There was no seat accommodated him so well as the "bunker" at Woodend, and no face he loved so much to gaze on as Jeanie Deans's.

    6. A kitchen worktop.

    7. To load (a vessel) with coal or fuel oil for the engine.

    8. To take a load of coal or fuel oil for its engine.

    9. To steal bunker fuel by illicitly siphoning it off.

    10. To hit (a golf ball) into a bunker

      To hit (a golf ball) into a bunker; (chiefly passive voice) to place (a golfer) in the position of having a golf ball in a bunker.

    11. To fire constantly at (an opponent hiding behind an obstacle), trapping them and…

      To fire constantly at (an opponent hiding behind an obstacle), trapping them and preventing them from firing at other players; also, to eliminate (an opponent behind an obstacle) by rushing to the position and firing at extremely close range as the player becomes exposed.

    12. Often followed by down

      Often followed by down: to take shelter in a bunker or other place.

      • More than 10,000 people were bunkering in 20 emergency shelters across the disaster zone, not all of them cyclone-rated.
      • The Kyiv Zoo staff and their families are bunkering at the zoo as they care for the animals housed there amid the war in Ukraine.

    13. One who bunks off

      One who bunks off; a truant from school.

    14. The menhaden, any of several species of fish in the genera Brevoortia and Ethmidium.

      • Ten hours of footage revealed the young [shark's] habits, such as diving for squid up to 150 feet deep, then moving closer to shore to feast on huge schools of bunker fish.

    15. A surname.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for bunker. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA