Word.ws English Dictionary

taking up the gauntlet

taking up the gauntlet is the present participle and gerund of take up the gauntlet.

Meaning of take up the gauntlet

Verb

take up the gauntlet (third-person singular simple present takes up the gauntlet, present participle taking up the gauntlet, simple past took up the gauntlet, past participle taken up the gauntlet)

  1. (idiomatic) To accept a challenge.
    • He doesn't read Greek, but he took up the gauntlet and did his best to understand the letter, anyway.

Questions about taking up the gauntlet

What is taking up the gauntlet the present participle and gerund of?
Taking up the gauntlet is the present participle and gerund of take up the gauntlet.

Words near taking up the gauntlet in the dictionary

  1. taking up for
  2. taking up residence
  3. taking up the cudgel for
  4. taking up the cudgels
  5. taking up the gantlet
  6. taking up the gauntlet
  7. taking up the hatchet
  8. taking up the mantle
  9. taking up the slack
  10. taking up with
  11. taking upon oneself

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taking up the gauntlet (page history and authors); take up the gauntlet (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “taking up the gauntlet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/taking_up_the_gauntlet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.