What does "bunker" mean?
A hardened shelter, often partly buried or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks.
Bunker
/ˈbʌŋk.əː/ name, noun, verb, slang
name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A hardened shelter, often partly buried or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks.
- Grammar: bunker is listed as name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: sand trap, abri, acropolis, air-raid shelter.
- Useful contrasts: clear green, deplete, evacuate.
- Usage evidence: Seeing shafts of light piercing the fog, Tom's mother-in-law opened fire from her sofa fort bunker.
How to use "bunker"
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- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "bunker" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
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- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "bunker" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
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Compare nearby meanings
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Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "bunker" is acting as name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
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3. Confirm with context
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Final meaning check
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Definitions
Noun
- 1 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 One who bunks off; a truant from school. British, slang
- 3 The menhaden, any of several species of fish in the genera Brevoortia and Ethmidium. US, regional
"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."
- 4 a hazard on a golf course wordnet
- 5 A compartment for storing coal for the ship's boilers; or a tank for storing fuel oil for the ship's engines.
Show 9 more definitions
- 6 a fortification of earth; mostly or entirely below ground wordnet
- 7 The coal compartment on a tank engine; it can also refer to that on a tender engine.
"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."
- 8 a large container for storing fuel wordnet
- 9 Ellipsis of bunker oil (usually plural). abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
"The vessel is taking on bunkers."
- 10 A hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow.
"[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?"
- 11 An obstacle used to block an opposing player's view and field of fire.
- 12 A large bin or container for storing coal, often built outdoors in the yard of a house. British, historical
"There used to be a coal bunker at the back of the house - it was demolished years ago."
- 13 A sort of box or chest, as in a window, the lid of which serves as a seat. Scotland
"A winnock-bunker in the eaſt, / There ſat auld Nick, in ſhape o' beaſt; […]"
- 14 A kitchen worktop. Scotland, slang
Verb
- 1 To load (a vessel) with coal or fuel oil for the engine. transitive
- 2 hit a golf ball into a bunker wordnet
- 3 To take a load of coal or fuel oil for its engine. intransitive
- 4 transfer cargo from a ship to a warehouse wordnet
- 5 To steal bunker fuel by illicitly siphoning it off. Nigeria, transitive
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 fill (a ship's bunker) with coal or oil wordnet
- 7 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. transitive
- 8 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.; To place (someone) in a position that is difficult to get out of; to hinder. UK, idiomatic, informal, transitive
"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."
- 9 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. transitive
- 10 Often followed by down: to take shelter in a bunker or other place. intransitive
"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."
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
"Seeing shafts of light piercing the fog, Tom's mother-in-law opened fire from her sofa fort bunker."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "bunker"?
Common synonyms include: sand trap, abri, acropolis, air-raid shelter, antre, approach trench.
How do you use "bunker" in a sentence?
Seeing shafts of light piercing the fog, Tom's mother-in-law opened fire from her sofa fort bunker.
How do you pronounce "bunker"?
Pronounced /ˈbʌŋk.əː/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
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.
Etymology 2
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).
Etymology 3
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).