🏃♂️ Running the Gauntlet: Dodging Sticks, Criticism, and More 🏃♀️
Definition
Running the Gauntlet: To be exposed to a course of danger, trying conditions, or severe criticism.
Origins
The term dates back to the seventeenth century and involves a rather painful lesson in ancient disciplinary measures. Adopted from the Swedes by the Germans, the original military punishment involved stripping a soldier to the waist and making him run between two rows of comrades. These comrades, far from providing encouraging high-fives, were armed with sticks or knotted cords to deliver not-so-friendly taps on the poor soul. The passage he ran was called gatloppe in Swedish and gantloppe or gantlope in German.
Even the American colonies couldn’t resist importing the practice as a civilian punishment. It was spelled gantlet or gauntlet, but regardless of spelling, the hurt remained very much the same.
As a side note, Oliver Wendell Holmes weaved this phrase into literature in 1858: “They have run the gauntlet of the years,” he wrote, leaving us to imagine the perils faced without actually running amidst aggressive baton-wielding critics.
Similar Phrases and Idioms
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Under Fire: To be subjected to constant criticism or attack.
- Synonyms: Under scrutiny, beleaguered.
- Antonyms: Praised, unchallenged.
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Trial by Fire: A test of one’s abilities or endurance through severe or difficult challenges.
- Synonyms: Rite of passage, baptism by fire.
- Antonyms: Easy task, a walk in the park.
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Baptism of Fire: A soldier’s first experience in battle; figuratively, undergoing a difficult introduction to something.
Quotable
“Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man’s growth without destroying his roots.” — Frank A. Clark
Suggestions for Reading & Viewing
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Books:
- The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (where everyone seems to be running a endless gauntlet of red tape!)
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Movies:
- Whiplash (2014) - A literal and metaphorical gauntlet of musical and personal trials.
- The Gauntlet (1977) - How can you resist watching Clint Eastwood run a…well, you get it.
Intriguing Titles in the Series
- 📚 “The Road Less Traveled: Navigating Life’s Cliché Pathways”
- 🌧️ “When It Rains, It Pours: Tackling Life’s Torrential Idioms”
- 🐦 “Killing Two Birds with One Stone: Maximizing Your Metaphor Mastery”
- 🔥 “Baptism by Fire: Surviving Idiomatic Infernos”
May your creativity never be curtailed by criticism, and remember, for every stick and stone, there’s a proverbs and poem to ease the journey. Keep running, keep writing. 🌟
— W. T. Wittywords
