Noun

• 1. to offer or accept a challenge;

  "threw down the gauntlet"

  "took up the gauntlet"

• 2. a glove of armored leather; protects the hand

• 3. a glove with long sleeve

• 4. the convergence of two parallel railroad tracks in a narrow place; the inner rails cross and run parallel and then diverge so a train remains on its own tracks at all times

• 5. 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