run the gauntlet

run the gauntlet

To be exposed to or forced to endure a series of threats, dangers, criticism, or other problems. Refers to an old military punishment in which one was forced to run between two lines of soldiers while being thrashed with rods or whips. Medical students often feel that they have to run the gauntlet when they become residents in a hospital. The director has been running the gauntlet of fans' outrage following the release of his latest film.
See also: gauntlet, run
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

run the gauntlet

 
1. Lit. to race, as a punishment, between parallel lines of men who thrash one as one runs. The knight was forced to doff his clothes and run the gauntlet.
2. and run the gauntlet of something Fig. to endure a series of problems, threats, or criticism. After the play, the director found himself running the gauntlet of questions and doubts about his ability.
See also: gauntlet, run
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

run the gauntlet

Be exposed to danger, criticism, or other adversity, as in After he was misquoted in the interview, he knew he would have to run the gauntlet of his colleagues' anger . This term, dating from the first half of the 1600s, comes from the word gantlope, which itself comes from the Swedish word gatlopp, for "lane-course." It referred to a form of military punishment where a man ran between two rows of soldiers who struck him with sticks or knotted ropes. Almost as soon as gantlope appeared, it was replaced by gauntlet. The word was being used figuratively for other kinds of punishment by 1661, when Joseph Glanvill wrote, "To print, is to run the gantlet, and to expose oneself to the tongues strapado" ( The Vanity of Dogmatizing, or Confidence in Opinion).
See also: gauntlet, run
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

run the gauntlet of something/someone

COMMON If you run the gauntlet of a difficult situation, especially one in which many people insult, question or attack you, you experience it. Note: Gauntlets are long thick gloves which protect your hands, wrists, and forearms. He had to run the gauntlet of photographers and journalists outside the High Court. They ran the gauntlet of angry demonstrators. She left the court but not before she had run the gauntlet of threats and abuse. Note: `Gatlopp' is a Swedish word meaning `lane run'. The `gatlopp' was a Swedish military punishment that came into common use in England during the Thirty Years' War (1618-48). The victim had to run between two rows of soldiers who would whip or beat them. In England, the unfamiliar Swedish word `gatlopp' was replaced by the more familiar English word `gauntlet'.
See also: gauntlet, of, run, someone, something
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

run the gauntlet

go through an intimidating or dangerous crowd, place, or experience in order to reach a goal.
This phrase alludes to the former military practice of punishing a wrongdoer by forcing him to run between two lines of men armed with sticks, who beat him as he passed. Gauntlet here has nothing to do with a glove, but is a version of an earlier word gantlope , itself taken from Swedish gatloppe , which meant ‘lane course’.
See also: gauntlet, run
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

run the ˈgauntlet

be attacked or criticized by many people at the same time: The Prime Minister’s car had to run the gauntlet of a large group of protesters outside the conference hall.This phrase refers to an old army punishment where a man was forced to run between two lines of soldiers hitting him.
See also: gauntlet, run
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

run the gauntlet, to

To be exposed to a course of danger, trying conditions, or criticism. The term originated in the seventeenth century, when the Germans adopted this military punishment from the Swedes. It consisted of stripping a man to the waist and making him run between two rows of soldiers, who struck him with sticks or knotted cords. The passage he ran was gatloppe in Swedish and gantloppe or gantlope in German. It was adopted as a civilian punishment in the American colonies and was spelled gantlet or gauntlet. “They have run the gauntlet of the years,” wrote Oliver Wendell Holmes (The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 1858).
See also: run
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • hard to take
  • price one has to pay
  • the price (one) has to pay
  • have had a basinful
  • have had a basinful (of something)
  • basinful
  • have made your bed and have to lie on it
  • (one) has made (one's) bed and (one) will have to lie in it
  • (one) made (one's) bed and (one) has to lie in it
  • (one) made (one's) bed and (one) must lie in it
References in classic literature
By one speaker it was proposed that he be disembowelled, by another that he be made to run the gauntlet. Some favoured hanging, some thought that it would do him good to appear in a suit of tar and feathers.
Fantastic Fables
I observed that the vitals of the village were the grocery, the bar-room, the post-office, and the bank; and, as a necessary part of the machinery, they kept a bell, a big gun, and a fire-engine, at convenient places; and the houses were so arranged as to make the most of mankind, in lanes and fronting one another, so that every traveller had to run the gauntlet, and every man, woman, and child might get a lick at him.
Walden & on the Duty of Civil Disobedience
After I had run the gauntlet of the begging children, and was just out of ear- shot of the group, I turned round to survey it from a distance.
Quest of the Golden Girl
Some lost heart, and proposed to return, rather than fight their way, and, in a manner, run the gauntlet through the country of these piratical marauders.
Astoria or Anecdotes of an enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountain
Faith, madam, I believe you would have been kinder to wait and let him run the gauntlet at Pilkington's.
The Little White Bird
The proud consciousness of her trust, and the great importance she derived from it, might have advertised it to all the house if she had had to run the gauntlet of its inhabitants; but as Dolly had played in every dull room and passage many and many a time, when a child, and had ever since been the humble friend of Miss Haredale, whose foster-sister she was, she was as free of the building as the young lady herself.
Barnaby Rudge A Tale Of The Riots Of Eighty
At that period (so soon after the forty-five) there were many exiled gentlemen coming back at the peril of their lives, either to see their friends or to collect a little money; and as for the Highland chiefs that had been forfeited, it was a common matter of talk how their tenants would stint themselves to send them money, and their clansmen outface the soldiery to get it in, and run the gauntlet of our great navy to carry it across.
Kidnapped
We must, then, make a push, and if the Indians or Frenchers are in the narrows, run the gauntlet through these toppling mountains.
Last of The Mohicans
It certainly was a slight armament with which to run the gauntlet through countries swarming with hostile hordes, and a slight bark to navigate these endless rivers, tossing and pitching down rapids, running on snags and bumping on sand-bars; such, however, are the cockle-shells with which these hardy rovers of the wilderness will attempt the wildest streams; and it is surprising what rough shocks and thumps these boats will endure, and what vicissitudes they will live through.
Adventures of Captain Bonneville USA in the Rocky Mountains and
Until the person is able to abstract and define rationally the idea of good, and unless he can run the gauntlet of all objections, and is ready to disprove them, not by appeals to opinion, but to absolute truth, never faltering at any step of the argument-- unless he can do all this, you would say that he knows neither the idea of good nor any other good; he apprehends only a shadow, if anything at all, which is given by opinion and not by science;-- dreaming and slumbering in this life, before he is well awake here, he arrives at the world below, and has his final quietus.
Republic
To run the gauntlet of their faces in Cornhill is enough to discourage a thoughtful man for hours.
Unsocial Socialist
(by nature) may be, and however unacquainted with conventional behaviour, the chances are, that she will have quite as strong an innate sense of the decencies and proprieties of life as if she had run the gauntlet of a dozen London seasons--possibly a stronger one, for such senses have been known to blunt in this improving process.
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
We were sentenced to run the gauntlet. They rubbed grease and motor oil on us and cut our hair to leave tufts here and there.
POLLYWOG RITE OF PASSAGE
Minutes earlier, a spectator appeared to spit at the English rider - confirming pre-race fears he'd run the gauntlet having been cleared of taking excess asthma medication.
Froome hit and spat on
However, the island soon becomes a war zone, with violence inflamed by social media, and a drug dealer must run the gauntlet of violence to rescue his former lover.
THE FIRST PURGE Cert 15 []