bunker
Americannoun
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a large bin or receptacle; a fixed chest or box.
a coal bunker.
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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.
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Golf. any obstacle, as a sand trap or mound of dirt, constituting a hazard.
verb (used with object)
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Nautical.
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to provide fuel for (a vessel).
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to convey (bulk cargo, except grain) from a vessel to an adjacent storehouse.
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Golf. to hit (a ball) into a bunker.
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to equip with or as if with bunkers.
to bunker an army's defenses.
noun
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a large storage container or tank, as for coal
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Also called (esp US and Canadian): sand trap. an obstacle on a golf course, usually a sand-filled hollow bordered by a ridge
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an underground shelter, often of reinforced concrete and with a bank and embrasures for guns above ground
verb
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(tr) golf
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to drive (the ball) into a bunker
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(passive) to have one's ball trapped in a bunker
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(tr) nautical
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to fuel (a ship)
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to transfer (cargo) from a ship to a storehouse
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Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bunkersimple
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bunkerssimple
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have bunkeredperfect
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has bunkeredperfect
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am bunkeringprogressive
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are bunkeringprogressive
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is bunkeringprogressive
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have been bunkeringperfect progressive
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has been bunkeringperfect progressive
Past
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bunkeredsimple
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had bunkeredperfect
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was bunkeringprogressive
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were bunkeringprogressive
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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
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I Survived the Battle of D-Day, 1944
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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 manager of the site said this bunker was poor in comparison to the one the government built in Essex around the same time beneath a farmer's field.
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
The air was so still that, as they climbed out of the bunker, they could hear the caw-caw-caw of some birds far off.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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
That includes using drones for tasks that once would have required sending a soldier to the danger zone, having troops hunker down in underground bunkers, and increasing efforts to evade detection.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026
The real hydrogen bombs were removed from storage bunkers and loaded onto trucks.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
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
Th' prisident was first off th' tee with an excellent three while his opponent was almost hopelessly bunkered in a camera.
From Mr. Dooley Says by Dunne, Finley Peter
"This marks an important step towards establishing methanol bunkering at scale and driving Singapore's ambition to be a sustainable multi-fuel bunkering hub," the MPA said.
From Barron's ● Nov. 24, 2025
Shell and the BMI insist any occurrences of oil spills in the region are because of theft - known in the industry as "oil bunkering".
From BBC ● Feb. 11, 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
The proposed expansion would have allowed vessels and so-called bunkering barges to load liquid natural gas to power their own ships, but also to transfer fuel to other ships, making them floating fuel suppliers.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 24, 2024
I will try to relate it here mainly in the words of the chief engineer of a certain steamship which, after bunkering, left Lerwick, bound for Iceland.
From Notes on Life and Letters by Conrad, Joseph
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.
