GAUNTLET • DICCIONARIO INGLES.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

... and the driving gear better fitted. Spring wheat patents rapidly rose to the first place in the market, and winter wheat millers waked up to find their vantage ground occupied by their hitherto contemned rivals. To their credit it may be said that they have not been slow in taking up the gauntlet, and through the competition of the millers of the two climatically divided sections of this country with each other and among themselves the onward march of milling progress has been constantly ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 303 - October 22, 1881 • Various

... request, she stripped the gauntlet without purpose from one of her little brown hands. A solitaire sparkled on the third finger. Again she murmured, "I'll ask mother"; then turned and flashed up the steps, her slender limbs carrying with fluent grace ...

— Steve Yeager • William MacLeod Raine

... gunboats, carrying a battery of one eleven-inch Dahlgren gun, a twenty pounder Parrott rifle, and two twenty-four pounder howitzers, and commanded by Lieutenant-Commanding N.B. Harrison, a loyal Virginian, who had wavered never a moment as to his duty when his State threw down the gauntlet of rebellion. ...

— The Bay State Monthly - Volume 1, Issue 4 - April, 1884 • Various

... being dismissed; they crowded around me, however, and heaped mockery and derision upon me, while Susanna, who may have realized that the lesson was too severe, tried to pacify me. Since that day I believe I know how the man feels who runs the gauntlet. ...

— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IX - Friedrich Hebbel and Otto Ludwig • Various

... doctor's gauntlet, I was conducted from the south wing of the cell-house to the north wing. Here I met for the first time Mr. Elliott, who has charge of this building during the daytime. It is a part of this highly efficient officer's duty to cross-examine the prisoners as to where they have lived and what they ...

— The Twin Hells • John N. Reynolds

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