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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

... speak. The letter which follows gives a specific instance of the kind of experience which disgusted the idealist with the imperfect world. He had been living against society, had foregathered with outcasts and had thrown down the gauntlet generally to organised society, for some years, but he still from time to time worked at some job or other. An incident happening some years after the meeting with Marie, which is still to be described, is sufficiently ...

— An Anarchist Woman • Hutchins Hapgood

... Hereford and Lancaster!" said the herald, flinging a steel gauntlet on the floor with a ringing clash, "there lieth my lord of Percy's gage! thus doth he defy thee ...

— Historic Boys - Their Endeavours, Their Achievements, and Their Times • Elbridge Streeter Brooks

... these works had been garrisoned by Confederate troops, and it was not likely to be an easy matter to get into the bay. As it looked to the owner and the commander, the only way to accomplish this feat was by running the gauntlet of both forts, which were just three nautical ...

— Taken by the Enemy • Oliver Optic

... returned to him. Upon receiving back the sword he went and knelt before the presiding knight and took the oath of knighthood. The friends who accompanied him now came forward and handed him the spurs, the coat of mail, the armlet and gauntlet, and having put these on he girded on his sword. The presiding knight now bade him kneel, and, touching him three times on the shoulder with the flat of his sword, he pronounced the words that received him into the company of worthy knights: "In the ...

— The Junior Classics, V4 • Willam Patten (Editor)

... had a curious sense of relief, as though he had at last thrown down the gauntlet to ...

— The Troll Garden and Selected Stories • Willa Cather

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