Word.ws English Dictionary

gunny

/ˈɡʌni/

gunny noun: a coarse heavy fabric made of jute or hemp. Also the clipping of gunny sack.

Noun (1)

gunny (usually uncountable, plural gunnies)

  1. (usually) A coarse heavy fabric made of jute or hemp.
    • Traffic is brisk, and goods consists of rice, gunny (hessian), maize and native implements.1946 September and October, “Notes and News: Light Railways in India”, in Railway Magazine, page 316
    • Provisions were ferried by camel in stout sacks of gunny with blocks of ice packed round them; a herculean task.1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 102

Noun (2)

gunny (plural gunnies)

  1. (countable, informal) A gunnery sergeant.
    • The gunny's voice reverberated between the barracks as we marched, “Ya left right . . . left right . . . left right left. […] Then the gunny unexpectedly stopped our forward movement. “Company, halt!”2004, Buzz Williams, Spare parts: a marine reservist's journey from campus to combat in Vietnam
    • “As a rule of thumb, Marine corporals, when a gunny asks a question, answer it,”2007, W. E. B. Griffin, The Hunters

Adjective

gunny (comparative gunnier, superlative gunniest)

  1. (informal) Resembling or characteristic of a gun.
  2. (informal) Full of guns or gunplay.
    • "Aw, ferget them two guns!" Bland surrendered. "This is sure the gunniest country I ever stopped in. Even the Janes–"1918, B. M. Bower, Skyrider

Also used as

gunny is also the clipping of gunny sack.

gunny meaning in Punjabi and Persian

gunny in Punjabi

fabric
ਤੱਪੜ tappaṛ

gunny in Persian

fabric
گونی guni

Forms of gunny

Noun
pluralgunnies
Adjective
comparativegunnier
superlativegunniest

Origin of gunny

From Hindi and Marathi गनी (ganī) or गोन (gon), from Sanskrit गोणी (goṇī), ultimately of Dravidian origin. Doublet of gunia.

A shortening of gunnery sergeant

From gun + -y.

Words formed from gunny

Phrases with gunny

Words that rhyme with gunny

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about gunny

What does gunny mean?
Gunny means a coarse heavy fabric made of jute or hemp.
What is gunny in Punjabi?
Gunny in Punjabi is ਤੱਪੜ (tappaṛ). See Gunny meaning in Punjabi.
What part of speech is gunny?
Gunny can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce gunny?
Gunny is pronounced /ˈɡʌni/.
What is the plural of gunny?
The plural of gunny is gunnies.

Words near gunny in the dictionary

  1. gunnists
  2. Gunnoe
  3. Gunnoes
  4. Gunns
  5. Gunns Plains
  6. gunny
  7. gunny sack
  8. gunny sacks
  9. gunny-bag
  10. gunny-bags
  11. gunnybag

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gunny (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gunny.wav.

Cite this entry: “gunny.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gunny. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.