gauntlet

Meanings

1. Protective armor for the hands, formerly thrown down as a challenge to combat.
2. A long glove covering the wrist.
3. A rope on which hammocks or clothes are hung for drying.
4. An eruption of pellagra on the hands.

1. Two parallel rows of attackers who strike at a criminal as punishment.
2. A simultaneous attack from two or more sides.
3. Any challenging, difficult, or painful ordeal, often one performed for atonement or punishment.
4. A fight against swarms of relatively minor enemies in the form of multiple waves, often but not always preceding a boss.
5. Overlapping parallel rail tracks; either to allowing passage through a narrow opening in each direction without switching, or to allow vehicles of a larger gauge to pass through a station without hitting the platforms.

Etymology

From Middle English gauntelett, gantlett, a borrowing from Old French gantelet (“gauntlet worn by a knight in armor, a token of one's personality or person, and symbolizing a challenge”), diminutive of gant (“glove”), a borrowing from Frankish *want (“glove; mitten”) and reinforced by Medieval Latin wantus (“glove”) itself borrowed from the former, from Proto-Germanic *wantuz (“glove; mitten”). Cognate with Dutch want (“mitten; shroud”), German Low German Want (“shroud”), Danish vante (“mitten”), Swedish vante (“glove; mitten”), Faroese vøttur (“glove; mitten”).