Jump To:

• bef.
  bef.

  abbreviation

  before.
• B.E.F.
  B.E.F.

  abbreviation

  British Expeditionary Force; British Expeditionary Forces.
• BEF
  BEF

  abbreviation

  British Expeditionary Force, the British armies that served in France and Belgium 1914–18 and in France 1939–40

bef.

¹ American  

abbreviation

1. before.

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B.E.F. ² American  

abbreviation

1. British Expeditionary Force; British Expeditionary Forces.

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BEF British  

abbreviation

1. British Expeditionary Force, the British armies that served in France and Belgium 1914–18 and in France 1939–40

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

B.E.F. BEF

A soldier on the Dunkirk beach recalled the brash bravery of the B.E.F.

From Time Magazine Archive

Some sardonic wit in London last week figured out what B.E.F. meant: Back Every Fortnight.

From Time Magazine Archive

Yet for most of the B.E.F., the defeat in France had been a badly needed but well learned lesson; they prepared for Operation Dynamo with a calm, stiff-lipped nonchalance that was unmistakably British.

From Time Magazine Archive

He had taken command of the B.E.F. when it was already broken and scrambling for the sea, and he was the last man in his command to leave.

From Time Magazine Archive

Le Cateau, chosen as concentration point for B.E.F.,

From 1914 by French, John Denton Pinkstone, Earl of Ypres

But Hoover refused to meet with a delegation from the BEF, and then hid out in the White House:

From Salon ● Jun. 14, 2020

His book, Challenge of Battle: The Real Story of the British Army in 1914, to be published by Osprey in February, is an analysis of the BEF in 1914.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 9, 2013

This was the excuse given to get the BEF to evacuate.

From Time Magazine Archive

Some unfortunate just behind him was pulled out to help hold off the onslaught which must surely come within two or three days, while the last of the BEF was piling into the boats.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

After the evacuation of the BEF in 1940 he remained in Great Britain.

From The Soul of the War by Gibbs, Philip