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
a foot in the door
an opening or opportunity to do something
I got a foot in the door when the company accepted my application.