Idiom Breakdown

take up the gauntlet

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Definition

To accept a challenge.

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Origins

See throw down the gauntlet. (Cf. French relever le gant)

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In Context

"He doesn't read Greek, but he took up the gauntlet and did his best to understand the letter, anyway."
"It was they, the ones without rights or positions, who had taken up the Emperor Wilhelm's gauntlet."