bunker

American  

[buhng-ker] / ˈbʌŋ kər /

noun

1. a large bin or receptacle; a fixed chest or box.

   a coal bunker.

2. 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.

3. Golf. any obstacle, as a sand trap or mound of dirt, constituting a hazard.

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verb (used with object)

1. Nautical.

   1. to provide fuel for (a vessel).

   2. to convey (bulk cargo, except grain) from a vessel to an adjacent storehouse.

2. Golf. to hit (a ball) into a bunker.

3. to equip with or as if with bunkers.

   to bunker an army's defenses.

bunker British  

/ ˈbʌŋkə /

noun

1. a large storage container or tank, as for coal

2. Also called (esp US and Canadian): sand trap.  an obstacle on a golf course, usually a sand-filled hollow bordered by a ridge

3. an underground shelter, often of reinforced concrete and with a bank and embrasures for guns above ground

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verb

1. (tr) golf

   1. to drive (the ball) into a bunker

   2. (passive) to have one's ball trapped in a bunker

2. (tr) nautical

   1. to fuel (a ship)

   2. to transfer (cargo) from a ship to a storehouse

Etymology

Origin of bunker

First recorded in 1750–60; earlier bonkar ( Scots ) “box, chest, serving also as a seat,” of obscure origin

Explanation

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."

Example Sentences

He hit a high, right-to-left shot out of the pine straw into the front left bunker.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 12, 2026

Maybe it isn’t yet time to leave your bunker altogether.

From Barron's • Apr. 12, 2026

Much of that damage was done on the par-four 11th where posted a triple-bogey seven after taking three shots to emerge from a greenside bunker.

From BBC • Apr. 9, 2026

It is common courtesy today to reach for a nearby rake after you have played from a bunker, and to smooth out the surface for the rest of the players.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 4, 2026

In the middle, where the nose would have been, a cement wall jutted from the hillside, with a metal door like the entrance to a bunker.

From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan

Related Words

• dugout
• fortification
• shelter