bunker

/ˈbʌŋkər/

/ˈbʌŋkə/

Other forms: bunkers; bunkered; bunkering

A bunker is an underground shelter, the kind you might build to prepare for a zombie apocalypse. (Be sure to stock up on canned food.)

If you talk about a bunker today, most people assume you mean a shelter that's used during war, like a foxhole, or a safe underground or recessed place. Golfers will think you mean an obstacle on a golf course, a depression that's filled with sand. Another kind of bunker is a compartment that's used to store fuel on large ships — the oil itself is known as bunker fuel. The original fuel bunkers held coal, but today they typically contain oil. Bunker comes from a Scottish word for "bench."

Definitions of bunker

1. noun

   a fortification of earth; mostly or entirely below ground
   synonyms: dugout

   types:

   fox hole, foxhole

   a small dugout with a pit for individual shelter against enemy fire

   funk hole

   dugout as a place of safe retreat (when in a funk)

   type of:

   fortification, munition

   defensive structure consisting of walls or mounds built around a stronghold to strengthen it
2. noun

   a large container for storing fuel
   “the ship's bunkers were full of coal”

   type of:

   container

   any object that can be used to hold things (especially a large metal boxlike object of standardized dimensions that can be loaded from one form of transport to another)
3. verb

   fill (a ship's bunker) with coal or oil
   type of:

   fuel

   provide with a combustible substance that provides energy
4. verb

   transfer cargo from a ship to a warehouse
   type of:

   shift, transfer

   move around
5. noun

   a hazard on a golf course
   synonyms: sand trap, trap

   type of:

   hazard

   an obstacle on a golf course
6. verb

   hit a golf ball into a bunker
   type of:

   hit

   cause to move by striking