1
: a bin or compartment for storage
especially
: one on shipboard for the ship's fuel
2
a
: a protective embankment or dugout
especially
: a fortified chamber mostly below ground often built of reinforced concrete and provided with embrasures
b
: a sand trap or embankment constituting a hazard on a golf course
Examples of bunker in a Sentence
Noun
The ammunition is stored in concrete bunkers.
Verb
She bunkered her tee shot.
They bunkered just enough coal to get them to the port.
Recent Examples on the Web
Keith Langston, Peoplemag, 18 Apr. 2024
Declassified shortly after the exposé, the bunker opened for tours in 1995.
—Emily Matchar, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Apr. 2024
But the militants threw hand grenades and sprayed gunfire into the bunker, killing many and injuring others, including Hersh.
—Shira Pinson, NBC News, 5 Apr. 2024
The incident ripped a 211-foot-long gash in the ship and dumped 53,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the bay.
—Paul Rogers, The Mercury News, 26 Mar. 2024
Carrying hundreds of kilograms of explosives, the glide bombs can smash through the underground bunkers that protect soldiers at the front.
—Constant Méheut, New York Times, 5 Mar. 2024
If one was detected and there was no response from the country’s leaders—presumably because they had been killed in the attack—the system would automatically transfer nuclear launch authority to a relatively junior officer in a secure bunker.
—Paul Scharre, Foreign Affairs, 29 Feb. 2024
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has plans to build a bunker on his land in Kauai, according to Wired.
—Dara Kerr, NPR, 28 Feb. 2024
After his tee shot at the seventh bounded through the fairway, Woods dumped his approach in the bunker and made double bogey.
—Dave Skretta, The Denver Post, 14 Apr. 2024
Daniel Sperry, Kansas City Star, 18 Apr. 2024
Often, Webster bunkered in her room, even when her bandmates went to eat.
—Dani Blum, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Apr. 2024
People slept in their cars and vans, bunkered down at the Big Sur Lodge, which opened its conference center to stranded drivers while others found a spot with friends.
—Kristin J. Bender, The Mercury News, 4 Apr. 2024
The 2012 49ers bunkered at a French Quarter hotel in New Orleans before falling to the Baltimore Ravens 34-31.
—Cam Inman, The Mercury News, 5 Feb. 2024
As the game lurched into the 70th and then 80th minute, Phoenix seemed content to bunker in a five-man back line and weather the San Diego storm.
—Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Oct. 2023
Several agencies are assisting with medical evacuations and conducting welfare checks as locals emerge after bunkering down amid Idalia.
—NBC News, 31 Aug. 2023
Vietnam will bunker against superior rivals and rely on the counter and getting the ball to forwards Nhu and Pham Hai Yen.
—John Powers, BostonGlobe.com, 20 July 2023
In recent years, Vladimir Putin has run much of his Presidency in the most splendid isolation, bunkered away in palaces from the wooded suburbs of Moscow to the shore of the Black Sea.
—David Remnick, The New Yorker, 24 June 2023
Noun
The series follows Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell), a young woman who’s spent her life living in the protection of an underground bunker after a nuclear war broke out between the U.S. and China.
—Keith Langston, Peoplemag, 18 Apr. 2024
Declassified shortly after the exposé, the bunker opened for tours in 1995.
—Emily Matchar, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Apr. 2024
But the militants threw hand grenades and sprayed gunfire into the bunker, killing many and injuring others, including Hersh.
—Shira Pinson, NBC News, 5 Apr. 2024
The incident ripped a 211-foot-long gash in the ship and dumped 53,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the bay.
—Paul Rogers, The Mercury News, 26 Mar. 2024
Carrying hundreds of kilograms of explosives, the glide bombs can smash through the underground bunkers that protect soldiers at the front.
—Constant Méheut, New York Times, 5 Mar. 2024
If one was detected and there was no response from the country’s leaders—presumably because they had been killed in the attack—the system would automatically transfer nuclear launch authority to a relatively junior officer in a secure bunker.
—Paul Scharre, Foreign Affairs, 29 Feb. 2024
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has plans to build a bunker on his land in Kauai, according to Wired.
—Dara Kerr, NPR, 28 Feb. 2024
After his tee shot at the seventh bounded through the fairway, Woods dumped his approach in the bunker and made double bogey.
—Dave Skretta, The Denver Post, 14 Apr. 2024
Verb
This is a trend that Sporting KC must buck, but Vermes doesn’t think his team needs to bunker in.
—Daniel Sperry, Kansas City Star, 18 Apr. 2024
Often, Webster bunkered in her room, even when her bandmates went to eat.
—Dani Blum, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Apr. 2024
People slept in their cars and vans, bunkered down at the Big Sur Lodge, which opened its conference center to stranded drivers while others found a spot with friends.
—Kristin J. Bender, The Mercury News, 4 Apr. 2024
The 2012 49ers bunkered at a French Quarter hotel in New Orleans before falling to the Baltimore Ravens 34-31.
—Cam Inman, The Mercury News, 5 Feb. 2024
As the game lurched into the 70th and then 80th minute, Phoenix seemed content to bunker in a five-man back line and weather the San Diego storm.
—Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Oct. 2023
Several agencies are assisting with medical evacuations and conducting welfare checks as locals emerge after bunkering down amid Idalia.
—NBC News, 31 Aug. 2023
Vietnam will bunker against superior rivals and rely on the counter and getting the ball to forwards Nhu and Pham Hai Yen.
—John Powers, BostonGlobe.com, 20 July 2023
In recent years, Vladimir Putin has run much of his Presidency in the most splendid isolation, bunkered away in palaces from the wooded suburbs of Moscow to the shore of the Black Sea.
—David Remnick, The New Yorker, 24 June 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bunker.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Bunker.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bunker. Accessed 1 May. 2024.
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