• n. 长手套；（古时士兵戴的）金属护手；夹道鞭笞的刑罚；交叉射击；严酷考验

1.金属手套，词源同wind, 缠绕，编织，即织成的手套。在中世纪向别人发出挑战时则掷手套于地，如果对方捡起手套，则是接受挑战。

2.严酷考验，来自瑞典语gatlopp, 即gate leap. 原为军事术语，当某人犯错误的时候，要从人墙里穿过去，接受同伴的鞭笞，棍杖。

gauntlet

gauntlet: The gauntlet of ‘run the gauntlet’ has no etymological connection with gauntlet ‘glove’ [15]. The latter was borrowed from Old French gantelet, a diminutive form of gant ‘glove’. This was originally a Germanic loanword, with surviving relatives in Swedish and Danish vante ‘glove’. As for ‘running the gauntlet’, it was to begin with ‘running the gantlope’, in which gantlope signified ‘two lines of people armed with sticks, who attacked someone forced to run between them’.

This was borrowed in the 17th century from Swedish gatlopp, a descendant of Old Swedish gatulop ‘passageway’; this was a compound noun formed from gata ‘way’ (related to English gate, gait) and lop ‘course’ (related to English leap and lope). Under the influence of gauntlet ‘glove’, English changed gatlopp to gantlope, and thence to gantlet (now restricted in use to an ‘overlapping section of railway track’) and gauntlet (as in ‘run the gauntlet’).
=> gait, gate, leap, lope

gauntlet (n.1)

"glove," early 15c., gantelet, from Old French gantelet (13c.) "gauntlet worn by a knight in armor," also a token of one's personality or person, and in medieval custom symbolizing a challenge, as in tendre son gantelet "throw down the gauntlet" (a sense found in English by 1540s). The Old French word is a semi-diminutive or double-diminutive of gant "glove" (12c.), earlier wantos (7c.), from Frankish *wanth-, from Proto-Germanic *wantuz "glove" (cognates: Middle Dutch want "mitten," East Frisian want, wante, Old Norse v?ttr "glove," Danish vante "mitten"), which apparently is related to Old High German wintan, Old English windan "turn around, wind" (see wind (v.)).

The name must orig. have applied to a strip of cloth wrapped about the hand to protect it from sword-blows, a frequent practice in the Icelandic sagas. [Buck]

Italian guanto, Spanish guante likewise are ultimately from Germanic. The spelling with -u- was established from 1500s.

gauntlet (n.2)

military punishment in which offender runs between rows of men who beat him in passing; see gantlet.

1. She picked up the gauntlet in her incisive Keynote Address to the Conference.

在大会主题发言中，她言辞犀利地回应挑战。

来自柯林斯例句

2. They have thrown down the gauntlet to the PM by demanding a referendum.

他们向首相挑战,要求进行公民投票.

来自《简明英汉词典》

3. He was not one to retreat but rather one who would take up the gauntlet.

他不是一个想退却的人,倒是一个宁愿应战的人.

来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4. Luxury car firm Jaguar has thrown down the gauntlet to competitors by giving the best guarantee on the market.

豪华轿车生产商捷豹公司推出了市场上最诱人的保修服务，向竞争对手发出了挑战。

来自柯林斯例句

5. The trucks tried to drive to the British base, running the gauntlet of marauding bands of gunmen.

卡车队试图冲过几帮劫匪的火力网开赴英军基地。

来自柯林斯例句