Dunkirk spirit
Courage under evacuation
Dunkirk spirit refers to British resolve in the face of adversity, evoking the 1940 evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk, France, when civilian boats joined the rescue effort.
The phrase suggests pulling together during a crisis, making do with limited resources, and refusing to surrender to difficult circumstances: The community showed real Dunkirk spirit during the floods.
- evacuationRemoval from danger
- civilian volunteersNon-soldiers offering free service
- rescueSave from harm
- Royal NavyUK naval military branch
- beachheadSecured landing zone
perseverance · solidarity · English Channel · improvisation · mutual aid · wartime strategy · resilience · strategic withdrawal · backs to the wall · never surrender · finest hour · hope · community support · home front · stiff upper lip · French troops · moral victory · Churchill
Dunkirk spiritsurrender
Cease resistance, yield
capitulation · defeatism · giving up · throwing in the towel · appeasement
Dunkirk spirithelplessness
Lacking ability to cope
paralysis · passivity · learned helplessness · inaction · doing nothing
Dunkirk spiritdespair
Total absence of hope
defeatism · hopelessness · fatalism · doom and gloom · pessimism
Dunkirk, spirit, spirits, spirited, spiritual, spiritually, spirituality, dispirit, dispirited