Definitions for gauntlet

• Definition
• Anagrams (237)

gauntlet gaunt·let

Spelling: [gawnt-lit, gahnt-]

IPA: /ˈgɔnt lɪt, ˈgɑnt-/

Gauntlet is a 8 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 9 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 13 points.

You can make 237 anagrams from letters in gauntlet (aeglnttu).

Definitions for gauntlet

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.
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.
5. the two rows of men administering this punishment.
6. an attack from two or all sides.
7. trying conditions; an ordeal.
8. gantlet1 (def 1).

Idioms

1. take up the gauntlet, to accept a challenge to fight: to show one's defiance. Also, take up the glove.
2. throw down the gauntlet, to challenge. to defy. Also, throw down the glove.
3. run the gauntlet, to suffer severe criticism or tribulation.

verb (used with object)

1. gantlet1 (def 3).

Origin of gauntlet

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

Examples for gauntlet

Students who survive the gauntlet and make it into college face a whole new set of challenges.

I have half a mind to go back for the little maiden's gauntlet.'

I flung my gauntlet of buffalo-hide at his feet in gage of battle.

But—he had watched Lestrange all day; he did not lift the gauntlet.

And so, reluctantly, they led him down the gauntlet of widened eyes.

A middle-class woman to boot, she ran the gauntlet of upper-class men marinated in sexism and class prejudice.

With those seven simple words, once politically fatal for a Republican leader to utter, the gauntlet was thrown.

Tensions escalated when Fieri decided to throw down a gauntlet of his own on the Today show on Thursday morning.

He may have reservations about going through that [gauntlet] drill again.

Dicksie smoothed her gauntlet in the assured manner natural to her.