bunker

plural bunkers

1. governmentA hardened shelter, often partly buried or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks.

   The military built a bunker to help evacuate the citizens safely from the bombings.

2. nauticalA compartment for storing coal for the ship's boilers; or a tank for storing fuel oil for the ship's engines.
3. rail transportThe coal compartment on a tank engine; it can also refer to that on a tender engine.

   The bunkers of these engines hold enough coal for one round journey of 120½ miles, and water is taken in each direction at Hexham.

   1941 December, “Notes and News: A Tank Engine's 241-mile Day”, in Railway Magazine, page 569

   2 more examples

   Among tank engines, the 0-6-2 wheel arrangement was by far the most numerous, there being nearly 450 of this arrangement, which offers the advantage of good power and adhesive weight, coupled with adequate tank and bunker capacity, within a limited compass.

   1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in The Railway Magazine, Westminster, London: IPC Transport Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 161

   The superstructure of the tender is modified by the removal of the side raves, and compartments for the fire-irons are formed on each side of the coal bunker.

   1956 April, “"Merchant Navy" Class Pacific Modified”, in Railway Magazine, page 212

4. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of bunker oil (usually plural).

   The vessel is taking on bunkers.

5. golfA hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow.

   1 more example

   [Letter X, page 204] At length I came within sight of them, three in number, where they sat cosily niched, into what you might call a bunker, a little sand-pit, dry and snug, and surrounded by its banks, and a screen of whins in full bloom. […] [Letter XI, page 223] And are ye in the wont of drawing up wi' all the gangrel bodies that ye meet on the high road, or find cowering in a sand-bunker upon the links?

   1824 June, [Walter Scott], “Letter X. Darsie Latimer to Alan Fairford.”; “Letter XI. The Same to the Same.”, in Redgauntlet, […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, pages 204 and 223

6. gamesAn obstacle used to block an opposing player's view and field of fire.
7. UKhistoricalA large bin or container for storing coal, often built outdoors in the yard of a house.

   There used to be a coal bunker at the back of the house - it was demolished years ago.

8. ScotlandA sort of box or chest, as in a window, the lid of which serves as a seat.

   A winnock-bunker in the eaſt, / There ſat auld Nick, in ſhape o' beaſt; […]

   1790 (date written; published 1791), Robert Burns, “Tam o’ Shanter. A Tale.”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 2nd edition, volume II, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC, page 202

   1 more example

   There was no seat accommodated him so well as the "bunker" at Woodend, and no face he loved so much to gaze on as Jeanie Deans's.

   1818 July 25, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter VIII, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC, page 234

9. ScotlandslangA kitchen worktop.
10. A refrigerator or freezer, usually with an open top, used to display chilled or frozen merchandise for convenience in grocery stores.

present singular third person bunkers · participle present bunkering · participle past bunkered · past bunkered

1. transitivenauticalTo load (a vessel) with coal or fuel oil for the engine.
2. intransitivenauticalTo take a load of coal or fuel oil for its engine.
3. NigeriatransitivenauticalTo steal bunker fuel by illicitly siphoning it off.
4. transitivegolfTo 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.
   1. UKidiomaticinformaltransitivegolfTo place (someone) in a position that is difficult to get out of; to hinder.

      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.

      1928 December (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, The Apple Cart: A Political Extravaganza, London: Constable and Company, published 1930, →OCLC, Act I, page 18

5. transitivegamesTo 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.
6. intransitiveOften followed by down: to take shelter in a bunker or other place.

   More than 10,000 people were bunkering in 20 emergency shelters across the disaster zone, not all of them cyclone-rated.

   2012 September 17, Michael McKenna, Tony Koch, “Cyclone Yasi crosses coast in North's darkest hour”, in The Australian

   2 more examples

   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.

   2010 May 19, Ben Doherty, “Thai soldiers arrest protest leaders in bloody 'final crackdown'”, in The Guardian

   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.

   2022 March 6, Heather Hamilton, “Kyiv Zoo staff and families care for nearly 4,000 animals amid war in Ukraine”, in Washington Examiner

plural bunkers

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

plural bunkers

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

   Ten hours of footage revealed the young [shark's] habits, such as diving for squid up to 150 feet deep, then moving closer to shore to feast on huge schools of bunker fish.

   2024 June 24, Melanie Haiken, “Baby great white shark reveals huge nursery near NYC in scientific first”, in National Geographic

1. A surname.