bunker
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbʌŋk.əː/
ipa: /ˈbʌŋk.ɚ/
rhymes: -ʌŋkə(ɹ)
Forms: form: bunkers
form: bunkering
form: bunkered
form: bunkered
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.
Senses: topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To load (a vessel) with coal or fuel oil for the engine.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To take a load of coal or fuel oil for its engine.
raw_tags: of a vessel
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To steal bunker fuel by illicitly siphoning it off.
topics: golf
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: 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.
examples: text: Proteus. Or we resign and tell the country that we cant carry on the King's Government under conditions which destroy our responsibility. / Balbus. Thatll do it. He couldnt face that. / Crassus. Yes: thatll bunker him.
ref: 1928 December (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, The Apple Cart: A Political Extravaganza, London: Constable and Company, published 1930, →OCLC, Act I, page 18:
topics: golf
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: 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.
To place (someone) in a position that is difficult to get out of; to hinder.
topics: games
paintball
glosses: 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.
examples: text: As troops swarmed the streets below and gun battles continued to rage, I bunkered in a room on the top floor of a building in the middle of the red zone. Redshirt spokesman Sean Boonpracong sought refuge there too. Protesters burned a train station below, hurling tyres on to an already roaring blaze across the tracks.
ref: 2010 May 19, Ben Doherty, “Thai soldiers arrest protest leaders in bloody 'final crackdown'”, in The Guardian:
text: More than 10,000 people were bunkering in 20 emergency shelters across the disaster zone, not all of them cyclone-rated.
ref: 2012 September 17, Michael McKenna, Tony Koch, “Cyclone Yasi crosses coast in North's darkest hour”, in The Australian:
text: The Kyiv Zoo staff and their families are bunkering at the zoo as they care for the animals housed there amid the war in Ukraine.
ref: 2022 March 6, Heather Hamilton, “Kyiv Zoo staff and families care for nearly 4,000 animals amid war in Ukraine”, in Washington Examiner:
glosses: Often followed by down: to take shelter in a bunker or other place.
Derived terms: bunker down
bunkerer
bunker out
bunker up