bunker

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbʌŋk.əː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbʌŋk.ɚ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌŋkə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: bunk‧er

A World-War-II-era single-person bunker (noun sense 1) in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.

A tank locomotive at Llandudno Junction, Wales, UK, with the bunker (noun sense 3) at the head of the train.

A bunker (sense 4.1) on a golf course.

The origin of the noun is uncertain;^[1] 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.”)),^[2][3] 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.^[4]

bunker (plural bunkers)

1. (military) A hardened shelter, often partly buried or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks.
2. (nautical) A compartment for storing coal for the ship's boilers; or a tank for storing fuel oil for the ship's engines.
3. (rail transport) The coal compartment on a tank engine.
   • 1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in The Railway Magazine, Westminster, London: IPC Transport Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 161:

     Among tank engines, the 0-6-2 wheel arrangement was by far the most numerous, there being nearly 450 of this arrangement, which offers the advantage of good power and adhesive weight, coupled with adequate tank and bunker capacity, within a limited compass.

   • 1941 December, “Notes and News: A Tank Engine's 241-mile Day”, in Railway Magazine, page 569:

     The bunkers of these engines hold enough coal for one round journey of 120½ miles, and water is taken in each direction at Hexham.

4. (sports)
   1. (golf) A hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow.
      • 1824 June, [Walter Scott], “Letter X. Darsie Latimer to Alan Fairford.”; “Letter XI. The Same to the Same.”, in Redgauntlet, , volume I, Edinburgh: [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, pages 204 and 223:

        [Letter X, page 204] At length I came within sight of them, three in number, where they sat cosily niched, into what you might call a bunker, a little sand-pit, dry and snug, and surrounded by its banks, and a screen of whins in full bloom. […] [Letter XI, page 223] And are ye in the wont of drawing up wi' all the gangrel bodies that ye meet on the high road, or find cowering in a sand-bunker upon the links?

        Used to refer to a sand-filled hollow in general.

   2. (paintball) An obstacle used to block an opposing player's view and field of fire.
5. (British, chiefly historical) A large bin or container for storing coal, often built outdoors in the yard of a house.
6. (Scotland)
   1. A sort of box or chest, as in a window, the lid of which serves as a seat.
      • 1790 (date written; published 1791), Robert Burns, “Tam o’ Shanter. A Tale.”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 2nd edition, volume II, Edinburgh: T Cadell, , and William Creech, , published 1793, →OCLC, page 202:

        A winnock-bunker in the eaſt, / There ſat auld Nick, in ſhape o' beaſt; […]

      • 1818 July 25, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter VIII, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series,  (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume I, Edinburgh: [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC, page 234:

        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.

   2. (slang) A kitchen worktop.

• → Catalan: búnquer
• → German: Bunker
  • → Polish: bunkier
  • → Romanian: buncăr

bunker (third-person singular simple present bunkers, present participle bunkering, simple past and past participle bunkered)

1. (nautical)
   1. (transitive) To load (a vessel) with coal or fuel oil for the engine.
   2. (intransitive, of a vessel) To take a load of coal or fuel oil for its engine.
   3. (transitive, Nigeria) To steal bunker fuel by illicitly siphoning it off.
2. (transitive, golf) 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.
   1. (idiomatic, UK, informal) To place (someone) in a position that is difficult to get out of; to hinder.
      • 1928 December (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, The Apple Cart: A Political Extravaganza, London: Constable and Company, published 1930, →OCLC, Act I, page 18:

        Proteus. Or we resign and tell the country that we cant carry on the King's Government under conditions which destroy our responsibility. / Balbus. Thatll do it. He couldnt face that. / Crassus. Yes: thatll bunker him.

3. (transitive, paintball) 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.
4. (intransitive) Often followed by down: to take shelter in a bunker or other place.
   • 2010 May 19, Ben Doherty, “Thai soldiers arrest protest leaders in bloody 'final crackdown'”, in The Guardian‎:

     As troops swarmed the streets below and gun battles continued to rage, I bunkered in a room on the top floor of a building in the middle of the red zone. Redshirt spokesman Sean Boonpracong sought refuge there too. Protesters burned a train station below, hurling tyres on to an already roaring blaze across the tracks.

   • 2012 September 17, Michael McKenna, Tony Koch, “Cyclone Yasi crosses coast in North's darkest hour”, in The Australian‎:

     More than 10,000 people were bunkering in 20 emergency shelters across the disaster zone, not all of them cyclone-rated.

   • 2022 March 6, Heather Hamilton, “Kyiv Zoo staff and families care for nearly 4,000 animals amid war in Ukraine”, in Washington Examiner‎:

     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.

From bunk (“to fail to attend school or work without permission, to play truant”) +‎ -er (suffix forming agent nouns indicating a person or thing that does an action).

bunker (plural bunkers)

1. (British, slang) One who bunks off; a truant from school.

Clipping of mossbunker,^[5] a variant of mossbanker, from Dutch marsbanker (“common scad or Atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus)”), from Marsdiep (“deep tide-race between Den Helder and Texel in the Netherlands”) + bank (“shallow part of the sea near a coast”) + -er (suffix forming nouns denoting male inhabitants of a place).

bunker (plural bunkers)

1. (US, regional) The menhaden, any of several species of fish in the genera Brevoortia and Ethmidium.
   • 2024 June 24, Melanie Haiken, “Baby great white shark reveals huge nursery near NYC in scientific first”, in National Geographic‎:

     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.

• bunker on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• fuel bunker on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• menhaden on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
  • Brevoortia on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
  • Brevoortia on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
  • Ethmidium on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
  • Ethmidium on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• bunker (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Brunke

Borrowed from English bunker.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʏŋ.kər/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bun‧ker
• Rhymes: -ʏŋkər

bunker m (plural bunkers, diminutive bunkertje n)

1. bunker (low-lying fortification built into the landscape)

   Synonym: kazemat

2. (golf) bunker (hole with a surface of sand or dirt, placed on a golf course as a barrier)
3. bunker, cargo hold, storage room

• atoombunker
• bunkeren
• rukbunker

• → Indonesian: bunker

Borrowed from German Bunker.

• IPA^(key): /buŋ.kɛʁ/, /buŋ.kœʁ/

bunker m (plural bunkers)

1. (military) bunker

Borrowed from English bunker.

• IPA^(key): /bœŋ.kœʁ/

bunker m (plural bunkers)

1. (golf) bunker

• “bunker”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Indonesian Wikipedia has an article on:

bunker

Wikipedia ^id

From Dutch bunker, from English bunker, from German Bunker.

• IPA^(key):
• Hyphenation: bung‧kêr

bunkêr (plural bunker-bunker, first-person possessive bunkerku, second-person possessive bunkermu, third-person possessive bunkernya)

1. bunker
   1. (military) a hardened shelter, often buried partly or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks.
   2. (nautical) a container for storing coal or fuel oil for a ship's engine.

• bunker, bangker, banker

• “bunker” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

From English bunker, or from German Bunker.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbun.ker/, /ˈban.ker/^[1]

bunker m (invariable)

1. bunker

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:

bunker

Wikipedia ^no

bunker m

1. indefinite plural of bunke

From English bunker.

bunker m (definite singular bunkeren, indefinite plural bunkere, definite plural bunkerne)

1. bunker (storage for fuel on a ship)
2. bunker (reinforced shelter)
3. bunker (on a golf course)

• bunkerolje
• bunkre

• bunkers (fuel oil, military bunker)

• “bunker” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From English bunker.

bunker m (definite singular bunkeren, indefinite plural bunkerar, definite plural bunkerane)

1. bunker (storage for fuel on a ship)
2. bunker (reinforced shelter)
3. bunker (on a golf course)

• bunkre

• bunkers (fuel oil, militsry bunker)

• “bunker” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• búnquer

Unadapted borrowing from English bunker.^[1][2]

bunker m (plural bunkers)

1. (military) bunker (shelter)

• IPA^(key): /bǔnker/
• Hyphenation: bun‧ker

bùnker m (Cyrillic spelling бу̀нкер)

1. bunker (hardened shelter)
2. bunker (container for storing coal or fuel oil for a ship's engine)

bunker m (plural bunkers)

1. bunker

From English bunker.

bunker c

1. (military) a bunker
2. (nautical) a bunker
3. (golf) a bunker

• bunkra

• skyddsrum (“safe room”)

• bunker in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• bunker in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• bunker in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)