bunker

[buhng-ker] /ˈbʌŋ kər/

noun

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)

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.

Origin

1750-60; earlier bonkar (Scots) box, chest, serving also as a seat, of obscure origin

Examples from the web for bunker

His team of experts found that the ship's demise was self- inflicted--likely the result of a coal bunker fire.
It can be used as a ground penetrating bunker buster.
Nowhere has that bunker mentality been more obvious than in the rapid proliferation of gated communities.
Marsupial hand pockets and a jersey-lined hood make it a mobile bunker against chills.
After the uprising had been quelled, the prisoners remained in the bunker for another four days.
The path turns to the left and leads to a white bunker with a single narrow window.
As he was led back to the bunker, he was still sure that he would soon be shot, but he felt better for the tea.
The atmosphere falls somewhere between the calming hush of a desert spa and the nervous importance of a secret military bunker.
Newton to play first: he pulled his second into the bunker at the left side of the entrance to the green.
Here, her impulse is also to protect and preserve, by placing her work in a bunker and letting us peer in.

British Dictionary definitions for bunker

bunker

/ˈbʌŋkə/

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

(transitive) (golf)

to drive (the ball) into a bunker
(passive) to have one's ball trapped in a bunker

(transitive) (nautical)

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

Word Origin

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

Word Origin and History for bunker

1758, originally Scottish, "seat, bench," of uncertain origin, possibly a variant of banker "bench" (1670s; see bank (n.2)); possibly from a Scandinavian source (cf. Old Swedish bunke "boards used to protect the cargo of a ship"). Of golf courses, first recorded 1824, from extended sense "earthen seat" (1805); meaning "dug-out fortification" probably is from World War I.