GAUNTLET

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does gauntlet mean? 

• GAUNTLET (noun)
  The noun GAUNTLET has 4 senses:

1. to offer or accept a challenge

2. a glove of armored leather; protects the hand

3. a glove with long sleeve

4. 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

  Familiarity information: GAUNTLET used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GAUNTLET (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

To offer or accept a challenge

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

gantlet; gauntlet

Context example:

took up the gauntlet

Hypernyms ("gauntlet" is a kind of...):

challenge (a call to engage in a contest or fight)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A glove of armored leather; protects the hand

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

gantlet; gauntlet; metal glove

Hypernyms ("gauntlet" is a kind of...):

glove (handwear: covers the hand and wrist)

Holonyms ("gauntlet" is a part of...):

body armor; body armour; cataphract; coat of mail; suit of armor; suit of armour (armor that protects the wearer's whole body)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A glove with long sleeve

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

gantlet; gauntlet

Hypernyms ("gauntlet" is a kind of...):

glove (handwear: covers the hand and wrist)

Sense 4

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

gantlet; gauntlet

Hypernyms ("gauntlet" is a kind of...):

corporal punishment (the infliction of physical injury on someone convicted of committing a crime)

 Context examples 

The gauntlet, to which Mrs. Micawber referred upon a former occasion, being thrown down in the form of an advertisement, was taken up by my friend Heep, and led to a mutual recognition.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He stood at the door pulling on his long brown driving-gauntlets and giving his orders to the ostlers.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Pardieu! because I have sent my cartel, gauntlet, and defiance to Sir John Chandos and to Sir William Felton.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Lady Mary Loring slipped her hand from her yellow leather gauntlet, and he, lifting it with dainty reverence, bound it to the front of his velvet cap.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

However, we returned to those monsters, with fresh wakefulness on my part, and we left their eggs in the sand for the sun to hatch; and we ran away from them, and baffled them by constantly turning, which they were unable to do quickly, on account of their unwieldy make; and we went into the water after them, as natives, and put sharp pieces of timber down their throats; and in short we ran the whole crocodile gauntlet.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Greaves and knee-pieces were also of leather backed by steel, and their gauntlets and shoes were of iron plates, craftily jointed.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It appears to me, my dear Mr. Copperfield, said Mrs. Micawber, forcibly, that what Mr. Micawber has to do, is to throw down the gauntlet to society, and say, in effect, Show me who will take that up.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Nay, they sat tway and tway at a board, him that they call Aylward and the great red-headed man who snapped the Norman's arm-bone, and the black man from Norwich, and a score of others, rattling their dice in an archer's gauntlet for want of a box.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Nor is any occasion too small to take note of, for I have known such trifles as the dropping of a gauntlet, or the flicking of a breadcrumb, when well and properly followed up, lead to a most noble spear-running.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)