gauntlet Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun to offer or accept a challenge
    gantlet.
    • threw down the gauntlet
    • took up the gauntlet
  2. noun a glove of armored leather; protects the hand
    metal glove; gantlet.
  3. noun a glove with long sleeve
    gantlet.
  4. noun a form of punishment in which a person is forced to run between two lines of men facing each other and armed with clubs or whips to beat the victim
    gantlet.

WordNet

Gaunt"let noun
Definitions
  1. (Mil.) See Gantlet.
Gaunt"let noun
Etymology
F. gantelet, dim. of gant glove, LL. wantus, of Teutonic origin; cf. D. want, Sw. & Dan. vante, Icel. vöttr, for vantr.
Definitions
  1. A glove of such material that it defends the hand from wounds. ✍ 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.

Webster 1913