Other forms: bunks
A bunk is one of two beds built one above the other. Bunk beds, the top bunk, sleep in a bunk.
Bunks are standard in ships, trains, hostels and children's bedrooms, and the argument about who gets the top bunk is universal. In the singular, a bunk is also any narrow built-in bed on a boat or in a cabin. Note bunker, which is different and means a shelter or a sand hazard in golf; do a bunk, which is British informal for running away; and bunk as an old word for nonsense.
1nounbunkOne of two beds built one above the other.
“There are four bunks in the cabin and no room for anything else.”
bunk is a bed.
The origin is uncertain — bunk appears in the eighteenth century, possibly a shortening of bunker, meaning a chest or box seat. The nonsense sense is separate, from Buncombe County in America, whose congressman spoke at length to no purpose.
Built from
Sense of sleeping berth possibly from Scottish bunker (“seat, bench”), the origin of which is unknown but possibly Scandinavian (gmq); compare gmq-osw bunke (“boards used to protect the cargo of a ship”). Possibly related to bunch.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA