n.
1.a crisis in which a desperate effort is the only alternative to defeat
2.a city in northern France on the North Sea where in World War II (1940) 330,000 Allied troops had to be evacuated from the beaches at Dunkirk in a desperate retreat under enemy fire
Idiom of the Day
knock (someone) off his or her feet
to surprise or shock someone so much that he does not know what to do
When they announced that I had won the prize it knocked me off my feet.