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gauntlet - 10 dictionary results

gaunt⋅let

1  [gawnt-lit, gahnt-]
Use gauntlet in a Sentence
–noun
1. a medieval glove, as of mail or plate, worn by a knight in armor to protect the hand.
2. a glove with an extended cuff for the wrist.
3. the cuff itself.
—Idioms
4. take up the gauntlet,
a. to accept a challenge to fight: He was always willing to take up the gauntlet for a good cause.
b. to show one's defiance.
Also, take up the glove.
5. throw down the gauntlet,
a. to challenge.
b. to defy.
Also, throw down the glove.
Origin:
1375–1425; late ME gantelet < MF, dim. of gant glove < Gmc *want-; cf. ON vǫttr

Related forms:
gaunt⋅let⋅ed, adjective

gaunt⋅let

2  [gawnt-lit, gahnt-]
–noun
1. 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.
2. the two rows of men administering this punishment.
3. an attack from two or all sides.
4. trying conditions; an ordeal.
5. gantlet 1 (def. 1).
–verb (used with object)
6. gantlet 1 (def. 3).
—Idiom
7. run the gauntlet, to suffer severe criticism or tribulation.
Also, gantlet (for defs. 1, 2, 4).

Origin:
1670–80; alter. of gantlope

gant⋅let

1  [gant-lit, gawnt-]
–noun
1. Railroads. a track construction used in narrow places, in which two parallel tracks converge so that their inner rails cross, run parallel, and diverge again, thus allowing a train to remain on its own track at all times.
2. gauntlet 2 (defs. 1, 2, 4).
–verb (used with object)
3. Railroads. to form or lay down as a gantlet: to gantlet tracks.
Also, gauntlet (for defs. 1, 3).

Origin:
1900–05; var. of gantlope
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To gauntlet
gaunt·let 1 also gant·let   (gônt'lĭt, gänt'-)   
n.  
  1. A protective glove worn with medieval armor.
  2. A protective glove with a flared cuff, used in manual labor, in certain sports, and for driving.
  3. A challenge: throw down the gauntlet; take up the gauntlet.
  4. A dress glove cuffed above the wrist.

[Middle English, from Old French gantelet, diminutive of gant, glove, from Frankish *want.]
gaunt·let 2 also gant·let   (gônt'lĭt, gänt'-)   
n.  
    1. A form of punishment or torture in which people armed with sticks or other weapons arrange themselves in two lines facing each other and beat the person forced to run between them.
    2. The lines of people so arranged.
  2. An onslaught or attack from all sides: "The hostages . . . ran the gauntlet of insult on their way to the airport" (Harper's).
  3. A severe trial; an ordeal.

[Alteration (influenced by gauntlet1) of gantlope, from Swedish gatlopp : gata, lane (from Old Norse; see ghē- in Indo-European roots) + lopp, course, running (from Middle Low German lōp).]
Word History: The spelling gauntlet is acceptable for both gauntlet meaning "glove" or "challenge" and gauntlet meaning "a form of punishment in which lines of men beat a person forced to run between them"; but this has not always been the case. The story of the gauntlet used in to throw down the gauntlet is linguistically unexciting: it comes from the Old French word gantelet, a diminutive of gant, "glove." From the time of its appearance in Middle English (in a work composed in 1449), the word has been spelled with an au as well as an a, still a possible spelling. But the gauntlet used in to run the gauntlet is an alteration of the earlier English form gantlope, which came from the Swedish word gatlopp, a compound of gata, "lane," and lopp, "course." The earliest recorded form of the English word, found in 1646, is gantelope, showing that alteration of the Swedish word had already occurred. The English word was then influenced by the spelling of the word gauntlet, "glove," and in 1676 we find the first recorded instance of the spelling gauntlet for this word, although gantelope is found as late as 1836. From then on spellings with au and a are both found, but the au seems to have won out.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Gauntlet

Gaunt"let\, n. (Mil.) See Gantlet.

Gauntlet

Gaunt"let\, n. [F. gantelet, dim. of gant glove, LL. wantus, of Teutonic origin; cf. D. want, Sw. & Dan. vante, Icel. v["o]ttr, for vantr.]

1. 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.

2. A long glove, covering the wrist.

3. (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.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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gauntlet  (1)
"glove," c.1420, from M.Fr. gantelet, semi-dim. of gant "glove," from Frank. *want, from P.Gmc. *wantuz "glove" (cf. M.Du. want "mitten," O.N. vöttr "glove," Dan. vante "mitten").

gauntlet  (2)
"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.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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gauntlet

see run the gauntlet; throw down the gauntlet.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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