drop the gloves

verb

To fight.

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Meanings

verbdrop the gloves (third-person singular simple present drops the gloves, present participle dropping the gloves, simple past and past participle dropped the gloves)

present singular third person drops the gloves · participle present dropping the gloves · participle past dropped the gloves · past dropped the gloves

  1. CanadaUSidiomatichobbiesTo fight.

    Nobody used to care when players such as John Ferguson, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe and Maurice Richard dropped the gloves, because they could play the game, too.

    2007 March 27, Mike Brophy, “Getting rid of the goons”, in Globe and Mail, Canada, retrieved 14 Oct 2008
  2. CanadaUSbroadlyidiomaticTo remove a prior impediment to action; to prepare for or engage in a dispute.

    But Bradley, who dropped the gloves on Gore in a combative debate Wednesday night and called the vice president chronically dishonest, ignored Sullivan's advice.

    2000 January 30, Thomas DeFrank et al., “George W. & Al Bank on Bubba”, in New York Daily News, retrieved 14 Oct 2008

Origin

From the practice of ice hockey players of removing their heavy gloves before striking blows in fistfights.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

drop the gloves. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/drop%20the%20gloves

MLA

“drop the gloves.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/drop%20the%20gloves. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “drop the gloves,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/drop%20the%20gloves.

Source: drop the gloves on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.