bunker
UK /ˈbʌŋ.kə/ · US /ˈbʌŋ.kɚ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms bunkers bunkering bunkered
- noun (military) 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.”
- noun (nautical) A compartment for storing coal for the ship's boilers; or a tank for storing fuel oil for the ship's engines.
- noun (rail transport) The coal compartment on a tank engine; it can also refer to that on a tender engine.
- noun (golf) A hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow.
- noun (paintball) An obstacle used to block an opposing player's view and field of fire.
- noun (UK, chiefly historical) 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.”
- noun A sort of box or chest, as in a window, the lid of which serves as a seat.
- noun (slang) A kitchen worktop.
- verb (transitive) To load (a vessel) with coal or fuel oil for the engine.
- verb (intransitive, of a vessel) To take a load of coal or fuel oil for its engine.
- verb (transitive, Nigeria) To steal bunker fuel by illicitly siphoning it off.
- verb (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.
- verb (idiomatic, UK, informal) To place (someone) in a position that is difficult to get out of; to hinder.
- verb (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.
- verb (intransitive) Often followed by down: to take shelter in a bunker or other place.
- noun (UK, slang, India) One who bunks off; a truant from school.
- noun (US, regional) The menhaden, any of several species of fish in the genera Brevoortia and Ethmidium.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
Etymology
The origin of the noun is uncertain; the earliest sense is sense 7.1 (“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.
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).
Clipping of mossbunker, 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).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A sort of chest or box, as in a window, the lid of which serves for a seat. [Scot.] Jamieson.
- noun A large bin or similar receptacle; as, a coal bunker.
Etymology [Scot. bunker, bunkart, a bench, or low chest, serving for a seat. Cf. Bunk, Bank, Bench.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bunker”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details