Find the word definition

Wiktionary
running the gauntlet

alt. (present participle of run the gauntlet English) n. A form of physical punishment by which a person is compelled to run through a double line of soldiers who attempt to strike him as they pass vb. (present participle of run the gauntlet English)

Wikipedia
Running the gauntlet

Gauntlet is a form of physical punishment where a captive is forced to run between two rows, a gauntlet, of soldiers who repeatedly strike him.

Usage examples of "running the gauntlet".

The 5th Descott had lost more than that, running the gauntlet of the murder-holes of the gatehouse and in the headlong charge that cleared the plaza for the men behind them.

He running the gauntlet of his would-be executioners in the Steppdeckstrasse, she nearly raped, sentenced to death on a deserted riverfront in the Guisan Quai.

It was not the Turks who most worried him, but the Russians, always intriguing to gain access to the oceans of the world without running the gauntlet of someone else’.

Many times had he lobbed dummy grenades in SAS training exercises under similar conditions, running the gauntlet of smoke bombs and tear gas.

It's like running the gauntlet in the old days, did you ever read about that?