bunker

[ buhng-ker ]
See synonyms for bunker on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a large bin or receptacle; a fixed chest or box: a coal bunker.

  2. a fortification set mostly below the surface of the ground with overhead protection provided by logs and earth or by concrete and fitted with openings through which guns may be fired.

  1. Golf. any obstacle, as a sand trap or mound of dirt, constituting a hazard.

verb (used with object)
  1. Nautical.

    • to provide fuel for (a vessel).

    • to convey (bulk cargo, except grain) from a vessel to an adjacent storehouse.

  2. Golf. to hit (a ball) into a bunker.

  1. to equip with or as if with bunkers: to bunker an army's defenses.

Origin of bunker

1
First recorded in 1750–60; earlier bonkar (Scots ) “box, chest, serving also as a seat,” of obscure origin

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use bunker in a sentence

  • Bunkered in a gated community, away from friends and foes alike, John Edwards lives a lonely life.

    John Edwards in Exile | Diane Dimond | June 17, 2010 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • Th' prisident was first off th' tee with an excellent three while his opponent was almost hopelessly bunkered in a camera.

    Mr. Dooley Says | Finley Dunne
  • Nevertheless he accomplished it perfectly and never once bunkered us by the way.

    Fifty Years of Golf | Horace G. Hutchinson
  • I happened to be bunkered at the fourteenth, and took my niblick to get out, but lost the hole.

  • But poor Willy on that occasion got heavily bunkered; lost his head a little and perhaps his temper more than a little.

    Fifty Years of Golf | Horace G. Hutchinson

British Dictionary definitions for bunker

bunker

/ (ˈbʌŋkə) /


noun
  1. a large storage container or tank, as for coal

  2. Also called (esp US and Canadian): sand trap an obstacle on a golf course, usually a sand-filled hollow bordered by a ridge

  1. an underground shelter, often of reinforced concrete and with a bank and embrasures for guns above ground

verb
  1. (tr) golf

    • to drive (the ball) into a bunker

    • (passive) to have one's ball trapped in a bunker

  2. (tr) nautical

    • to fuel (a ship)

    • to transfer (cargo) from a ship to a storehouse

Origin of bunker

1
C16 (in the sense: chest, box): from Scottish bonkar, of unknown origin

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012