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Gauntlet

[gawnt-lit, gahnt-]

Example Sentences Origin

noun

a medieval glove, as of mail or plate, worn by a knight in armor to protect the hand.

a glove with an extended cuff for the wrist.

the cuff itself.

Idioms

take up the gauntlet,

to accept a challenge to fight: He was always willing to take up the gauntlet for a good cause.

to show one's defiance.

Also, take up the glove.

throw down the gauntlet,

to challenge.

to defy.

Also, throw down the glove.

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Gauntlet is always a great word to know.

So is zedonk. Does it mean:

a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.

the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

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Origin:
1375–1425; late Middle English gantelet < Middle French, diminutive of gant glove < Germanic *want-; compare Old Norse vǫttr

Related forms

gaunt·let·ed, adjective

un·gaunt·let·ed, adjective

Example Sentences

Google appears to be throwing down the gauntlet in the e-book market.

For some of them, walking through the cafeteria is a gauntlet.

Beefy security guards funnelled the pupils through a gauntlet of media and several dozen silent supporters.

EXPAND

Google appears to be throwing down the gauntlet in the e-book market.

For some of them, walking through the cafeteria is a gauntlet.

Beefy security guards funnelled the pupils through a gauntlet of media and several dozen silent supporters.

And a hook/loop tab adjustment on gauntlet lets you customize the fit.

It scurries to the beach through a gauntlet of mature birds, dodging frantically whenever one snaps at it, which happens a lot.

We got to jump on a light cycle and fight a gauntlet of enemies.

He promptly took command, ran a gauntlet of flame, bombs and gunfire and saved the vessel from destruction.

But it can be the velvet glove around the steel gauntlet.

After a final toast, the bridal convoy left to the sound of joyful gunfire and towards a gauntlet of roadblocks.

To survive for long, they'll have to make their way past a gauntlet of predators.

Watching the final gauntlet testing was particularly fun.

It will toughen up the candidates for the extremist gauntlet to come.

Nemko, but you did throw down the gauntlet pretty definitively.

However, the government opened to talk of changing this system, no one took up the gauntlet.

The full-length, over-the-cuff gauntlet seals out snow with a one-handed, super-cinch drawstring closure.

Sony has declared that it will smite anyone caught engaging in such hackery with the mighty gauntlet of justice.

The last stretch was the trickiest, a gauntlet through ominous seracs.

Of course, they also face a gauntlet of security checkpoints and the threat of roadside bombs.

But ultimately, it yielded better intelligence, because that gauntlet of sniff tests kept us grounded.

It lays down the gauntlet for us to learn how to engineer genomes.

The firm's returned chief executive has thrown down the gauntlet in its struggling retail unit.

He has also thrown down the moral gauntlet to big business:.

It lays down the gauntlet for us to learn how to engineer genomes".

Dalloway,” throws down a bold visual gauntlet from its very.

Paul tried to lay down the gauntlet several months ago, this debate has raged in the paleo-art community.

Tesla's pack ran the testing gauntlet alongside those of several other manfacturers and came out on top fair and square.

Huxley, the author in his preface throws down the gauntlet at once, and perhaps in a.

Those that are chosen must then run the gauntlet of libidinous producers, hosts and guests.

He has left his family and community with a legacy which will galvanize others to pick up his gauntlet for generations to come.

Visitors who go through the gauntlet to get there come for.

Mugler seemed to be throwing down a monkey-fur gauntlet to fashion's showmen-come-lately.

Nannobacterium is a word that by its mere spelling throws down a gauntlet to microbiologists.

Irwin delays his direct attack until the penultimate chapter but throws down the gauntlet early.

It is a gauntlet tossed in the faces of those who favor the fuller length.

Two new books, one from each of these two perspectives, take up the gauntlet of explaining successful innovation.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun Also, gantlet (for defs. 1, 2, 4).

a former punishment, chiefly military, in which the offender was made to run between two rows of men who struck at him with switches or weapons as he passed.

the two rows of men administering this punishment.

an attack from two or all sides.

trying conditions; an ordeal.

gantlet¹ (def. 1).

verb (used with object)

gantlet¹ (def. 3).

Idiom

run the gauntlet, to suffer severe criticism or tribulation.

Origin:
1670–80; alteration of gantlope

Link To Gauntlet

Collins

World English Dictionary

gauntlet or gantlet¹ (ˈɡɔːntlɪt)

—n
1.	a medieval armoured leather glove
2.	a heavy glove with a long cuff
3.	take up the gauntlet to accept a challenge
4.	throw down the gauntlet to offer a challenge

[C15: from Old French gantelet, diminutive of gant glove, of Germanic origin]

gantlet or gantlet¹

—n

[C15: from Old French gantelet, diminutive of gant glove, of Germanic origin]

gauntlet² (ˈɡɔːntlɪt)

—n
1.	a punishment in which the victim is forced to run between two rows of men who strike at him as he passes: formerly a military punishment
2.	run the gauntlet
	a. to suffer this punishment
	b. to endure an onslaught or ordeal, as of criticism
3.	a testing ordeal; trial
4.	a variant spelling of gantlet

[C15: changed (through influence of gauntlet¹) from earlier gantlope; see gantlet¹]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

gauntlet

"glove," c.1420, from M.Fr. gantelet (13c.), semi-dim. of gant "glove" (12c.), earlier wantos (7c.), from Frank. *want-, from P.Gmc. *wantuz "glove" (cf. M.Du. want "mitten," E.Fris. want, wante, O.N. vöttr "glove," Dan. vante "mitten"), which apparently is related to O.H.G. wintan, O.E. windan

EXPAND

"turn around, wind" (see wind (v.)).

"The name must orig. have applied to a strip of cloth wrapped about the hand to protect it from sword-blows, a frequent practice in the Icelandic sagas." [Buck]

It. guanto, Sp. guante are likewise ult. from Gmc.

gauntlet

"military punishment," 1661, earlier gantlope (1646), from Sw. gatlopp "passageway," from O.Sw. gata "lane" + lopp "course," related to löpa "to run." Probably borrowed by Eng. soldiers during Thirty Years' War.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

gauntlet

see run the gauntlet; throw down the gauntlet.

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Related Words

glove throw cuff gantelope

gantelope gantlope lame

Idioms & Phrases

run the gauntlet

throw down the gauntlet

Matching Quote

"Yet, if the pupil be of a texture to bear it, the best university that can be recommended to a man of ideas is the gauntlet of the mobs."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

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