Gunny

//ˈɡʌni// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A coarse heavy fabric made of jute or hemp. uncountable, usually

    "Traffic is brisk, and goods consists of rice, gunny (hessian), maize and native implements."

  2. 2
    A gunnery sergeant. countable, informal

    "The gunny's voice reverberated between the barracks as we marched, “Ya left right . . . left right . . . left right left. […] Then the gunny unexpectedly stopped our forward movement. “Company, halt!”"

  3. 3
    coarse jute fabric wordnet
  4. 4
    Clipping of gunny sack abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, usually

Synonyms

All synonyms
bagburlapburlapcorduroycottonfabric

Example

More examples

"Traffic is brisk, and goods consists of rice, gunny (hessian), maize and native implements."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Hindi and Marathi गनी (ganī) or गोन (gon), from Sanskrit गोणी (goṇī), ultimately of Dravidian origin. Doublet of gunia.

Etymology 2

A shortening of gunnery sergeant

Related phrases

gunny sackgunnery sergeant

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.