gauntlet [LME] To throw down the gauntlet and run the gauntlet use two different gauntlets. If someone throws down (or takes up) the gauntlet [M16th], they issue (or accept) a challenge. In medieval times a gauntlet (from Old French) was a glove worn as part of a medieval suit of armour. The custom was for a knight to challenge another to a fight or duel by throwing his gauntlet to the ground. The other knight would pick it up to show that he accepted the challenge. To run the gauntlet has nothing to do with gloves, but refers to a former military form of punishment recorded from the mid 17th century. A soldier found guilty of an offence, particularly stealing from his fellows, was stripped to the waist and forced to run between two lines of men armed with sticks, who beat him as he went past. Gauntlet here is a version of an earlier word gantlope, from Swedish gatlopp, from gata ‘lane’ and lopp ‘course’. Run the gantlope was first recorded in English in 1646, but gantlope was soon replaced by gauntlet, a more familiar word.