GAUNTLET • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Gauntlet

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/gˈɔntlət/ Listen

noun

Gauntlet n. (Mil.) See Gantlet.

Gauntlet n.

A glove of such material that it defends the hand from wounds. Note: The gauntlet of the Middle Ages was sometimes of chain mail, sometimes of leather partly covered with plates, scales, etc., of metal sewed to it, and, in the 14th century, became a glove of small steel plates, carefully articulated and covering the whole hand except the palm and the inside of the fingers.

A long glove, covering the wrist.

(Naut.) A rope on which hammocks or clothes are hung for drying.

To take up the gauntlet, to accept a challenge.

To throw down the gauntlet, to offer or send a challenge. The gauntlet or glove was thrown down by the knight challenging, and was taken up by the one who accepted the challenge; hence the phrases.

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Etymology of 'Gauntlet'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Gauntlet" Quotes from Famous Books

... be throwing down the gauntlet to the Austrian government, and if it intends to preserve its Polish provinces, it will ...

— Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia • L. Muhlbach

... and targett carried before him. And a herald proclaims "That if any dare deny Charles Stewart to be lawful King of England, here was a Champion that would fight with him;" and with these words, the Champion flings down his gauntlet, and all this he do three times in his going up towards the King's table. To which when he is come, the King drinks to him, and then sends him the cup which is of gold, and he drinks it off, and then rides back again with the cup in his hand. I went from table to table to see the Bishops ...

— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys

... Growler and Julia. Then, when too late, Chauncy tacked also, and stood after him. The schooners, meanwhile, kept clawing to windward till they were overtaken, and, after making a fruitless effort to run the gauntlet through the enemy's squadron by putting before the wind, were captured. Yeo's account is simple: "Came within gunshot of Pike and Madison, when they immediately bore up, fired their stern-chase guns, and made all sail for Niagara, leaving two of their schooners ...

— The Naval War of 1812 • Theodore Roosevelt

... him on the wheel he meant for me; 1060 To spurn the rod a scribbler bids me kiss, Nor care if courts and crowds applaud or hiss: Nay more, though all my rival rhymesters frown, I too can hunt a Poetaster down; And, armed in proof, the gauntlet cast at once To Scotch marauder, and to Southern dunce. Thus much I've dared; if my incondite lay [lxxx] Hath wronged these righteous times, let others say: This, let the world, which knows not how to spare, Yet rarely blames unjustly, now ...

— Byron's Poetical Works, Vol. 1 • Byron

... first to taste his mettle. He had me twice before I could get clear, and I seem to feel it as I write. One by one the luckless and dripping Philosophers ran the gauntlet of that fatal debarkation, which was by no means alleviated by the opprobrious hilarity of our two castigators and ...

— Tom, Dick and Harry • Talbot Baines Reed

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