bunkern.1
/ˈbʌŋkə/, U.S. /ˈbəŋkər/ 1. A seat or bench (‘serving also for a chest’ Jamieson). Scottish.
ΚΠ
a1758 A. Ramsay Poems (1844) 91 Ithers frae aff the bunkers sank.
1790 R. Burns Tam o' Shanter in Poems & Songs (1968) II. 561 A winnock-bunker in the east, There sat aulld Nick.
1818 W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian viii, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. I. 234 No seat accommodated him so well as the ‘bunker’ at Woodend.
2. An earthen seat or bank in the fields. dialect.
ΚΠ
1805 Leslie of Powis, &c. (Jam.) The fishers..built an open bunkart or seat.
1880 W. H. Patterson Gloss. Words Antrim & Down Bunker, a low bank at a road side, a road side channel.
3.
a. A receptacle for coal on board ship; sometimes also on land.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > parts of vessels > room, locker, or quarters > [noun] > storage room or compartment > coal-bunker
coal-hole1801
coal-holdc1826
coal bunker1837
coal bunk1838
bunker1839
pocket1883
1839 Parl. Rep. Steam Vessel Accid. 74 Neither the bunkers nor the coal-hold were cleared out so often as they should be.
1851 Illustr. London News 24 Bunkers to hold 890 tons of coal.
1864 Times 10 Dec. The Cadmus has..her bunkers filled with upwards of 200 tons of coal.
1876 C. H. Davis Narr. North Polar Exped. Ship Polaris xviii. 450 The bunkers and bulkheads below deck were torn down.
1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §279 Bunkerman..tips wagons to discharge coal or iron into bunkers at ironworks.
1930 Engineering 16 May 629/3 This conveyor distributes the coal to three bunkers.
b. plural = bunker coal n. at Compounds 2.
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society > occupation and work > materials > fuel > coal or types of coal > [noun]
coal1253
sea-coal1253
pit-coal1483
cannel1541
earth coala1552
horse coal1552
Newcastle coal1552
stone-coal1585
cannel coal1587
parrot1594
burn-coal1597
lithanthrax1612
stony coal1617
Welsh coala1618
land-coala1661
foot coal1665
peacock coal1686
rough coal1686
white coal1686
heathen-coalc1697
coal-stone1708
round1708
stone-coal1708
bench-coal1712
slipper coal1712
black coal1713
culm1742
rock coal1750
board coal1761
Bovey coal1761
house coal1784
mineral coal1785
splint1789
splint coal1789
jet coal1794
anthracite1797
wood-coal1799
blind-coal1802
black diamond1803
silk-coal1803
glance-coal1805
lignite1808
Welsh stone-coal1808
soft1811
spout coals1821
spouter1821
Wallsend1821
brown coal1833
paper coal1833
steam-coal1850
peat-coal1851
cherry-coal1853
household1854
sinter coal1854
oil coal1856
raker1857
Kilkenny coal1861
Pottery coal1867
silkstone1867
block coal1871
admiralty1877
rattlejack1877
bunker1883
fusain1883
smitham1883
bunker coal1885
triping1886
trolley coal1890
kibble1891
sea-borne1892
jet1893
steam1897
sack coal1898
Welsh1898
navigation coal1900
Coalite1906
clarain1919
durain1919
vitrain1919
single1921
kolm1930
hards1956
1883 W. S. Gresley Gloss. Terms Coal Mining Bunkers, steam coal consumed on board ship.
1898 Daily News 18 Apr. 11/5 More money has to be paid for steam, bunkers, and gas coals.
1905 Spectator 28 Jan. 132/1 The annual output has increased very largely since 1870,..and its rate of growth..has been 21/ 2 per cent. per annum (and that of the exports, including bunkers, 41/ 2 per cent. per annum).
1935 Economist 5 Jan. 48/2 Prime unscreened bunkers, 13s. 6d.
c. = bunker-man n. at Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > workers with specific materials > workers with other materials > [noun] > with coke > involved in specific task
bunker-man1921
bunker1924
1924 Census 1921: Classif. Industries §744 Bunker [1927 Dict. Occup. Terms ‘tips coal from baskets or trucks into coal bins or bunkers as they are lowered by hoist... Collier..includes bunker, trimmer, loader’].
4.
a. Golf: ‘A sandy hollow formed by the wearing away of the turf on the “links”’ (Scottish). Now, an artificial sand-hole with a built-up face; also, any natural obstruction (as water, long grass, etc.) on a golf-course.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > golf > golf course > [noun] > hazards
hazard1744
blind hazard1816
bunker1824
sand-bunker1824
sand1842
break-club1857
water hazard1889
trap1890
casual water1899
pot bunker1899
sand-trap1922
1824 W. Scott Redgauntlet I. x. 204 They sat cosily niched, into what you might call a bunker, a little sand-pit.
1857 Chambers's Information for People (new ed.) II. 693/2 This club is useful too for elevating a ball..over..bunkers, whins, etc.
1857 H. B. Farnie in J. L. Stewart Golfiana Miscellanea (1887) 119 The surface is dotted over at frequent intervals with sandy holes, technically called bunkers, from two to six feet deep, of irregular forms and sizes.
1867 Cornhill Mag. Apr. 496 A fellow who puts you into a whin or a bunker every other stroke.
1893 H. G. Hutchinson Golfing 60 Sometimes you may be driven to invent hazards, by throwing up banks, cutting bunkers or planting bushes.
1897 Earl of Suffolk et al. Encycl. Sport I. 458/1 Between the teeing-ground and the putting-green should be found, whether they be natural or artificially formed, various ‘hazards’ in the shape of sand-pits or ‘bunkers’.
1897 Earl of Suffolk et al. Encycl. Sport I. 472/1 Bunker, originally a natural sand hole on the golf course. Now used also of artificially made hazards with built-up faces.
1955 Times 17 May 5/6 Mrs. Smith cut her second shot into the rough and put her recovery into a bunker on the right.
b. figurative.
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the world > action or operation > difficulty > hindrance > [noun] > one who or that which hinders > a hindrance, impediment, or obstacle
hinderc1200
withsetting1340
obstaclec1385
traversea1393
mara1400
bayc1440
stoppagec1450
barrace1480
blocka1500
objecta1500
clog1526
stumbling-stone1526
bar1530
(to cast) a trump in (one's) way1548
stumbling-stock1548
hindrance1576
a log in one's way1579
crossbar1582
log1589
rub1589
threshold1600
scotch1601
dam1602
remora1604
obex1611
obstructiona1616
stumbling-blocka1616
fence1639
affront1642
retardance1645
stick1645
balk1660
obstruent1669
blockade1683
sprun1684
spoke1689
cross cause1696
uncomplaisance1707
barrier1712
obstruct1747
dike1770
abatis1808
underbrush1888
bunker1900
bump1909
sprag1914
hurdle1924
headwind1927
mudhole1933
monkey wrench1937
roadblock1945
1900 A. Birrell in Cornhill Mag. Mar. 313 If you want to find the natural man at work you must look for him in the bunkers of life.
1905 Westm. Gaz. 28 Oct. 16/1 The Princess frock is a bunker not to be cleared by any economies or adaptations.
c. A military dugout; a reinforced concrete shelter.
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society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > shelter or screen > [noun] > other shelters
bomb-proof1755
splinter-proof1805
blast wall1852
command post1918
bunker1939
fallout shelter1955
1939 War Pictorial 13 Oct. 29/2 A Nazi field gun hidden in a cemented ‘bunker’ on the Western front.
1945 Over-All Rep. (U.S. Strategic Bombing Surv. Europ. War) 30 Sept. 104/1 Germany promised its people ‘bombproof’ shelters for all, and planned the construction of extensive above-ground concrete structures known as ‘bunkers’.
1947 H. Trevor-Roper Last Days of Hitler iv. 117 A curved stair led downwards to a still deeper and slightly larger bunker. This was..Hitler's own bunker, the stage on which the last act of the Nazi melodrama was played out.
1949 F. Maclean Eastern Approaches iii. iv. 354 The turf-covered ‘bunkers’ in which the Germans and Ustas̆e had made their last stand.
Compounds
C1. General attributive. (See also sense 1, 3, 4).
bunker-capacity n.
ΚΠ
1892 Daily News 28 July 6/7 That her bunker capacity is 2,000 tons.
bunker-hatch n.
ΚΠ
1904 Westm. Gaz. 16 July 5/2 A low bunker-hatch.
bunker-hold n.
ΚΠ
1890 Daily News 13 Oct. 3/6 The men at the bunker hold of the Grecian.
bunker-iron n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > golf > equipment > [noun] > club > types of club
play club1685
putting club1690
gentlemen's club1709
putter1783
spoon1790
iron1793
sand-iron1796
whip-club1808
cleek1829
driving putter1833
bunker-iron1857
driver1857
niblick1857
putting iron1857
baffing-spoon1858
mid-spoon1858
short spoon1858
sand-club1873
three-wood1875
long iron1877
driving cleek1881
mashie1881
putting cleek1881
track-iron1883
driving iron1887
lofting-iron1887
baffy1888
brassy1888
bulger1889
lofter1889
lofter1892
jigger1893
driving mashie1894
mid-iron1897
mashie-niblick1907
wood1915
pinsplitter1916
chipper1921
blaster1937
sand-wedge1937
wedge1937
1857 H. B. Farnie in J. L. Stewart Golfiana Miscellanea (1887) 142 Some bunker irons of the old make are round bottomed.
1886 A. Lang in Longman's Mag. July 332 The iron head makes it more like a bunker iron than a play club.
bunker-plate n.
ΚΠ
1888 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin. 53 Bunker Plate, a plate of sheet iron which encloses the area utilised for the deposit of boiler fuel.
bunker-room n.
ΚΠ
1894 Daily News 18 Dec. 5/4 Bunker room for 1,400 tons of coal.
bunker steamer n.
ΚΠ
1882 Harper's Mag. Sept. 594 The trail of smoke from that bunker steamer.
C2.
bunker coal n. spec. steam coal; also, coal carried by a steamer for its own use and not as cargo.
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society > occupation and work > materials > fuel > coal or types of coal > [noun]
coal1253
sea-coal1253
pit-coal1483
cannel1541
earth coala1552
horse coal1552
Newcastle coal1552
stone-coal1585
cannel coal1587
parrot1594
burn-coal1597
lithanthrax1612
stony coal1617
Welsh coala1618
land-coala1661
foot coal1665
peacock coal1686
rough coal1686
white coal1686
heathen-coalc1697
coal-stone1708
round1708
stone-coal1708
bench-coal1712
slipper coal1712
black coal1713
culm1742
rock coal1750
board coal1761
Bovey coal1761
house coal1784
mineral coal1785
splint1789
splint coal1789
jet coal1794
anthracite1797
wood-coal1799
blind-coal1802
black diamond1803
silk-coal1803
glance-coal1805
lignite1808
Welsh stone-coal1808
soft1811
spout coals1821
spouter1821
Wallsend1821
brown coal1833
paper coal1833
steam-coal1850
peat-coal1851
cherry-coal1853
household1854
sinter coal1854
oil coal1856
raker1857
Kilkenny coal1861
Pottery coal1867
silkstone1867
block coal1871
admiralty1877
rattlejack1877
bunker1883
fusain1883
smitham1883
bunker coal1885
triping1886
trolley coal1890
kibble1891
sea-borne1892
jet1893
steam1897
sack coal1898
Welsh1898
navigation coal1900
Coalite1906
clarain1919
durain1919
vitrain1919
single1921
kolm1930
hards1956
1885 Pall Mall Gaz. 19 Dec. 9/1 Calling..to embark bunker coals for use on the voyage.
1888 Daily News 10 July 5/2 The exports of ‘bunker’ coal..show an improvement.
1907 Daily Chron. 24 Jan. 6/4 The result of having a thing like this tangling our machinery is that we use an enormous quantity of bunker coal for very little speed.
bunker-man n. (see quot. 1924).
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > workers with specific materials > workers with other materials > [noun] > with coke > involved in specific task
bunker-man1921
bunker1924
1921 [see sense 3a].
1924 Census 1921: Classif. Industries §089 Bunkerman [1927 Dict. Occup. Terms 'in charge of bunkers at coke ovens where coal is stored'].
Draft additions June 2004
bunker-busting n. colloquial (originally U.S.) (a) n. the action of penetrating and destroying a military bunker; (b) adj. capable of penetrating and destroying a military bunker; cf. bunker buster n. 2b.
ΚΠ
1953 Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune 21 Jan. 14/2 United Nations tanks spread along the base of the ‘Iron Triangle’ early today to blast Communist positions on the central front in their six-day-long ‘bunker busting’ campaign.
1953 Mt. Pleasant (Iowa) News 12 Feb. 1/3 About 1,400 enemy soldiers were killed by bunker-busting tanks during December and January.
1987 Fortune 6 July 46/2 Bunker-busting ammunition and grenades.
2003 Internat. Herald Tribune (Nexis) 5 Aug. 1 If the arms are ever built,..the biggest hurdle to bunker busting may be targeting.
Draft additions March 2007
bunker mentality n. an attitude of (excessive) defensiveness resulting from the perception of being under attack.
ΚΠ
1974 Los Angeles Times 4 Dec. iv.12/7 The inertia of the bunker mentality had taken over.
1981 J. W. Cooper & M. H. Novak Corporation 227 Is there not a danger that you are developing a bit of a bunker mentality here about the state of siege of capitalism?
2004 Independent 6 Jan. i. 17/7 Faced with competition from women the reaction has been to hunker down in a bunker mentality.
Draft additions June 2022
bunker fuel n. any type of fuel (originally coal, later heavy fuel oil) used to power the engines of ships; spec. (in full bunker fuel oil) the lowest grade of heavy fuel oil, which has a tar-like consistency and high levels of impurities such as sulphur. [Originally with reference to the bunkers on steamships in which coal was stored as fuel.]
ΚΠ
1879 M. W. Aisbitt Let. in Marine Engineer Oct. 135/1 The total weight of the engines, boilers, and bunker fuel contained between the boiler and engine bulkheads, is only about one half of the displacement of that portion of the vessel when immersed to the load water line.
1927 Mil. Engineer 19 33/1 (advt.) We offer Bunker Fuel Oil, Asphalt, Road Oils, Gasoline, Lubricating Oils and Greases of high quality and uniformity.
2018 New Scientist 24 Feb. 25 Cargo ships..use bunker fuel, a cheap and sludgy oil that can emit about 3500 times as much sulphur dioxide as diesel does.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1888; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
bunkern.2
U.S. regional.
The menhaden; = mossbunker n.
ΚΠ
1842 J. E. De Kay Zool. N.-Y. iv. 260 The Mossbonker... At the east end of the island, they are called Skippangs or Bunkers.
1881 N.Y. Times in G. B. Goode Amer. Fishes (1888) 112 These smacks are engaged in the menhaden or ‘mossbunker’ fishery.
1888 G. B. Goode Amer. Fishes 386 New Jersey uses the New York name with its local variations, such as ‘Bunker’ and ‘Marshbanker’.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online March 2018).
bunkerv.
1.
a. transitive. To fill the bunkers of (a steamer) with coal or oil for its own consumption. Also with the coal or oil as object.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > other nautical operations > [verb (transitive)] > supply with coal or oil
coal1838
bunker1891
1891 Pall Mall Gaz. 19 Jan. 4/1 Many..of the great steamship companies of Liverpool were simply begging for coal to either bunker or cargo their steamers.
1893 Times 11 July 3/6 The ordinary rate of bunkering coal by manual labour.
1925 Blackwood's Mag. June 836/1 She was bunkered for the twenty-nine days' run to Batavia.
b. intransitive. To take in a supply of coal or oil for consumption on a voyage.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > other nautical operations > [verb (intransitive)] > bunker
coal1838
bunker1893
rebunker1899
oil1914
1893 Whitby Gaz. 3 Feb. 2/6 The foreign coaling clause in the outward coal charter bound them to bunker with the agents of the charterers.
1895 Whitby Gaz. 11 Apr. 3/2 We bunkered at Malta at four o'clock in the morning.
1925 Chambers's Jrnl. Dec. 778/2 There was some delay at Durban, where she bunkered.
2. Golf. passive.
a. Of the ball: to be hit into a bunker. Of a player: to have one's ball in a bunker.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > golf > play golf [verb (intransitive)] > have one's ball in a bunker
bunker1886
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > golf > play golf [verb (intransitive)] > of ball: be hit into a bunker
bunker1886
1886 H. G. Hutchinson Hints on Golf 40 Your adversary is badly bunkered.
1891 H. G. Hutchinson Famous Golf Links v. 56 His ball lofted on Mr. Maitland's, knocked it out of the hazard, and lay bunkered in its place.
1903 Punch 22 Apr. 283 On..the Golf Links..watching the Colonel, who has been bunkered for the last ten minutes.
1955 Times 19 May 4/7 She was bunkered at the 18th.
b. To be furnished with a bunker or bunkers.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > golf > golf course > [verb (intransitive)] > furnished with bunker(s)
bunker1907
1907 Daily Chron. 17 Aug. 7/2 The point of controversy..is as to how such a hole should be bunkered, or rather as to whether it should be bunkered at all.
c. figurative (colloquial). To be placed in a situation from which it is difficult to extricate oneself. Also, to place in such a situation.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > difficulty > hindrance > hindering completely or preventing > hinder completely or prevent [verb (intransitive)] > come to an impasse or be stuck
to stick in the claya1475
stick1534
stale1597
cumber1600
to stick in the mud1603
straita1616
strand1687
quagmire1701
stog1855
slew1890
bunker1894
bog1928
to be bogged1953
the world > action or operation > difficulty > of difficulty: beset (a person) [verb (transitive)] > put (a person) in difficulty > force into a difficult situation
to tie to the stake1544
fix1736
to set up1747
corner1824
to drive into a corner1861
bunker1930
to get or have (a person) by the short and curlies1948
to box (a person, esp. oneself) into a corner1955
1894 Baron Ribblesdale in Westm. Gaz. 6 Sept. 4/2 The Liberal peers were powerless. To use a golfing simile, they were bunkered.
1899 Geogr. Jrnl. May 474 In the long narrow ice-bound valleys which lead up from the Hindu Kush to the Pamirs..we were once, to use a familiar term, fairly bunkered.
1905 Westm. Gaz. 27 Dec. 1/3 The truth is that Mr. Balfour is bunkered by his own record.
1917 H. A. Vachell Fishpingle ix ‘Perhaps you regard golf as a sort of epitome of life?’..‘I suppose I do.’ ‘If you found yourself “bunkered”, you would not lose heart?’
1930 G. B. Shaw Apple Cart i. 18 Balbus. Thatll do it. He couldnt face that. Crassus. Yes: thatll bunker him.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online March 2020).
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