bunker
Americannoun
-
bunkers
plural
-
a large bin or receptacle; a fixed chest or box.
a coal bunker.
-
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.
-
Golf. any obstacle, as a sand trap or mound of dirt, constituting a hazard.
verb (used with object)
-
bunkers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
bunkered,
past participle, past
-
bunkering
present participle
-
Nautical.
-
to provide fuel for (a vessel).
-
to convey (bulk cargo, except grain) from a vessel to an adjacent storehouse.
-
-
Golf. to hit (a ball) into a bunker.
-
to equip with or as if with bunkers.
to bunker an army's defenses.
noun
-
a large storage container or tank, as for coal
-
Also called (esp US and Canadian): sand trap. an obstacle on a golf course, usually a sand-filled hollow bordered by a ridge
-
an underground shelter, often of reinforced concrete and with a bank and embrasures for guns above ground
verb
-
(tr) golf
-
to drive (the ball) into a bunker
-
(passive) to have one's ball trapped in a bunker
-
-
(tr) nautical
-
to fuel (a ship)
-
to transfer (cargo) from a ship to a storehouse
-
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
bunkersimple
-
bunkerssimple
-
have bunkeredperfect
-
has bunkeredperfect
-
am bunkeringprogressive
-
are bunkeringprogressive
-
is bunkeringprogressive
-
have been bunkeringperfect progressive
-
has been bunkeringperfect progressive
Past
-
bunkeredsimple
-
had bunkeredperfect
-
was bunkeringprogressive
-
were bunkeringprogressive
-
had been bunkeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bunker
First recorded in 1750–60; earlier bonkar ( Scots ) “box, chest, serving also as a seat,” of obscure origin
Explanation
A bunker is an underground shelter, the kind you might build to prepare for a zombie apocalypse. (Be sure to stock up on canned food.) If you talk about a bunker today, most people assume you mean a shelter that's used during war, like a foxhole, or a safe underground or recessed place. Golfers will think you mean an obstacle on a golf course, a depression that's filled with sand. Another kind of bunker is a compartment that's used to store fuel on large ships — the oil itself is known as bunker fuel. The original fuel bunkers held coal, but today they typically contain oil. Bunker comes from a Scottish word for "bench."
Vocabulary lists containing bunker
Maus I: My Father Bleeds History
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
I Survived the Battle of D-Day, 1944
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Some were wounded on the way to the bunker, but none were killed, officials said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
The bunker was built within two of the seven tunnels excavated beneath Brackla Hill during World War Two to store munitions from the nearby Royal Ordnance factory.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
This is not the freezer as bunker, or the freezer as punishment, or the freezer as the place where leftovers go to await their eventual quiet disposal.
From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2026
In 1944 the British Royal Air Force targeted the palace directly while the boy king sheltered in a fortified bunker.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
They’d finally come upon the section of the bunker that used the raving generators above: a line of fights along the ceiling illuminated the passage.
From "The Kill Order (Maze Runner, Book Four; Origin)" by James Dashner
The book includes photos of makeshift camps, barracks, latrines and other infrastructure, including the photography bunkers from which images of the explosion would be taken.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
These weapons allow the US to conduct precision strikes against hardened military targets, such as command bunkers or fortified military facilities, without putting manned aircraft in harm's way.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
These attacks have made Madyar a priority target for Russia, he says, forcing him into secret underground bunkers.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
A video on the company’s website shows schematics of bunkers fitted out as a gym, a restaurant, a general store, a community center and a medical clinic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026
They hurried to open the steel doors leading to the underground bunkers.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Antoniadi kept Pizza Hut closed and bunkered down in the restaurant for three days.
From Slate ● Nov. 13, 2025
It is uphill but well within reach from the tee, and heavily bunkered.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 15, 2022
“We have shown that we can not only fight, but we can also sing very nice,” said Vitaliy, a soldier bunkered down north of Kyiv.
From Reuters ● May 16, 2022
While most residents had fled, countless families remained bunkered beneath the complex of several buildings and a labyrinth of tunnels.
From Washington Post ● May 7, 2022
And now that they were face to face across a tea-table Miss Jones was bunkered again.
From The Visioning by Glaspell, Susan
To their surprise, they were told it was safe to play in the port city about an hour's drive east of Dubai, home to a key global oil storage and bunkering hub.
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2026
Singapore will start issuing bunkering licences next year to companies supplying methanol as marine fuel, in an effort to help global shipping cut carbon emissions, officials said Monday.
From Barron's ● Nov. 24, 2025
"They need to choose a machinery system and make plans for the future. At the same time, there is considerable uncertainty related to fuel prices, carbon pricing, fuel bunkering availability and safety," he says.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 16, 2024
So come out, come out, wherever you’re bunkering: It’s time to say an early hello to spring.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 12, 2024
The gradients between the tee and the hole should be made use of in bunkering.
From The Happy Golfer Being Some Experiences, Reflections, and a Few Deductions of a Wandering Golfer by Leach, Henry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
