Dunkirk

American  

[duhn-kurk] / ˈdʌn kɜrk /

noun

1. French Dunkerque.  a seaport in N France: site of the evacuation of a British expeditionary force of over 330,000 men under German fire May 29–June 4, 1940.

2. a period of crisis or emergency when drastic measures must be enforced.

   The smaller nations were facing a financial Dunkirk.

3. a city in W New York, on Lake Erie.

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Dunkirk Cultural  

1. The scene of a remarkable, though ignominious, retreat by the British army in World War II. Dunkirk, a town on the northern coast of France, was the last refuge of the British during the fall of France, and several hundred naval and civilian vessels took the troops back to England in shifts over three days.

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The term Dunkirk is sometimes used to signify a desperate retreat.

Example Sentences

Francois Benchendikh, a senior lecturer in public law at the Sciences Po Lille university, said the debate in court will focus on whether the Dunkirk centre is considered to be residential accommodation or not.

From BBC • May 27, 2026

We sent an undercover researcher, posing as a migrant trying to cross the Channel illegally with his child, into a migrant camp in Dunkirk.

From BBC • May 18, 2026

The train had been travelling from Dunkirk to Paris.

From BBC • Apr. 7, 2026

Greenpeace members on Saturday filmed the loading of about 10 containers with radioactive labels onto a cargo ship in the Channel port of Dunkirk, the NGO said.

From Barron's • Nov. 16, 2025

From that time on, this was how she ended every one of her letters to Robbie in France, right through to the last, which arrived just before the order came to fall back on Dunkirk.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan