bunker

Etymology 1

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.

noun

1. (military) A hardened shelter, often partly buried or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks.
2. (nautical) A compartment for storing coal for the ship's boilers; or a tank for storing fuel oil for the ship's engines.
3. (rail transport) The coal compartment on a tank engine.
   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 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
4. (sports)
   1. (golf) A hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow.
   2. (paintball) An obstacle used to block an opposing player's view and field of fire.
5. (Britain, chiefly historical) A large bin or container for storing coal, often built outdoors in the yard of a house.
6. (Scotland)
   1. A sort of box or chest, as in a window, the lid of which serves as a seat.
   2. (slang) A kitchen worktop.

verb

1. (nautical)
   1. (transitive) To load (a vessel) with coal or fuel oil for the engine.
   2. (intransitive, of a vessel) To take a load of coal or fuel oil for its engine.
   3. (transitive, Nigeria) To steal bunker fuel by illicitly siphoning it off.
2. (transitive, golf) To hit (a golf ball) into a bunker; (chiefly passive) to place (a golfer) in the position of having a golf ball in a bunker.
   1. (idiomatic, UK, informal) To place (someone) in a position that is difficult to get out of; to hinder.
3. (transitive, paintball) 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.
4. (intransitive) Often followed by down: to take shelter in a bunker or other place.
   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. 2010-05-19, Ben Doherty, “Thai soldiers arrest protest leaders in bloody 'final crackdown'”, in The Guardian
   More than 10,000 people were bunkering in 20 emergency shelters across the disaster zone, not all of them cyclone-rated. 2012-09-17, Michael McKenna, Tony Koch, “Cyclone Yasi crosses coast in North's darkest hour”, in The Australian
   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. 2022-03-06, Heather Hamilton, “Kyiv Zoo staff and families care for nearly 4,000 animals amid war in Ukraine”, in Washington Examiner

Etymology 2

From bunk (“to fail to attend school or work without permission, to play truant”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns indicating a person or thing that does an action).

noun

1. (Britain, slang) One who bunks off; a truant from school.

Etymology 3

(Brevoortia tyrannus), sometimes called a bunker.]] Clipping of mossbunker, a variant of mossbanker, from Dutch marsbanker (“common scad or Atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus)”), from Marsdiep (“deep tide-race between Den Helder and Texel in the Netherlands”) + bank (“shallow part of the sea near a coast”) + -er (suffix forming nouns denoting male inhabitants of a place).

noun

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