take up the gauntlet
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Accept a challenge or invitation to compete
Literally: pick up a medieval glove
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
One of the big four supermarkets, Sainsbury's says it's happy to take up the gauntlet.
The little cavalryman, embodiment of all the ancient martial instincts and panache of the race, had taken up the German gauntlet.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “take up the gauntlet” mean?
Accept a challenge or invitation to compete Literally: pick up a medieval glove
Is “take up the gauntlet” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.