gauntlet

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A protective glove worn with medieval armor.
2. n. A protective glove with a flared cuff, used in manual labor, in certain sports, and for driving.
3. n. A challenge: throw down the gauntlet; take up the gauntlet.
4. n. A dress glove cuffed above the wrist.
5. n. A form of punishment or torture in which people armed with sticks or other weapons arrange themselves in two lines facing each other and beat the person forced to run between them.
6. n. The lines of people so arranged.
7. n. An onslaught or attack from all sides: "The hostages . . . ran the gauntlet of insult on their way to the airport” ( Harper's).
8. n. A severe trial; an ordeal.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A glove; specifically, in medieval armor, a glove of defense, either attached to the defensive armor of the arm or separate from it. Throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the sleeve of the hauberk was long, and closed at the end covering the hands in the form of mittens; a glove of leather was worn beneath the mail to protect the hand from the chafing of the metal rings. Toward the end of the thirteenth century a slit was made at the palm, through which the hand could be passed, allowing the mail mitten to hang from the wrist. A few instances of mail gauntlets with separated fingers appear in English monuments of the same period. In the fourteenth century the separate armed glove appears, consisting at first of leather upon which roundels and other plates of steel are sewed; and about 1350 is found the completely articulated glove of hammered steel, each finger separate and each joint free to bend. The changes after this are merely in the direction of greater delicacy of execution, allowing still freer movement. In tourneys and justs the left hand was sometimes guarded by a heavy steel glove without joints. See mainde-fer. Also called glove-of-mail.
2. n. A long stout glove, usually for use in riding or driving. As ordinarily worn, it covers loosely the lower part of the arm.
3. n. In a restricted sense, the wrist-cover or cuff alone of a glove.
4. n. A mitt.
5. n. In surgery, a form of bandage which envelops the hand and fingers like a glove.
6. n. Hence, in general — To challenge; invite opposition with the view of overcoming it.
7. n. Same as gantlet, 1.

Wiktionary

1. n. Protective armor for the hands.
2. n. archaic Two parallel rows of attackers who strike at a criminal as punishment
3. n. Simultaneous attack from two or more sides
4. n. figuratively Any challenging, difficult, or painful ordeal, often one performed for atonement or punishment
5. n. rail transport A temporary convergence of two parallel railroad tracks allowing passage through a narrow opening in each direction without switching.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Mil.) See gantlet.
2. n. A glove of such material that it defends the hand from wounds.
3. n. A long glove, covering the wrist.
4. n. (Naut.) A rope on which hammocks or clothes are hung for drying.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. to offer or accept a challenge
2. n. a glove of armored leather; protects the hand
3. n. 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
4. n. a glove with long sleeve