bunker

Meanings

1. A hardened shelter, often partly buried or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks.
2. A compartment for storing coal for the ship's boilers; or a tank for storing fuel oil for the ship's engines.
3. The coal compartment on a tank engine; it can also refer to that on a tender engine.
4. Ellipsis of bunker oil (usually plural).
5. A hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow.
6. An obstacle used to block an opposing player's view and field of fire.
7. A large bin or container for storing coal, often built outdoors in the yard of a house.
8. A sort of box or chest, as in a window, the lid of which serves as a seat.
9. A kitchen worktop.

1. To load (a vessel) with coal or fuel oil for the engine.
2. To take a load of coal or fuel oil for its engine.
3. To steal bunker fuel by illicitly siphoning it off.
4. 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.
5. To place (someone) in a position that is difficult to get out of; to hinder.
6. 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.
7. Often followed by down: to take shelter in a bunker or other place.

1. One who bunks off; a truant from school.

1. The menhaden, any of several species of fish in the genera Brevoortia and Ethmidium.

1. A surname.

Etymology

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.

Translations