Meaning of take off one's gloves | Babel Free
Definitions
- To be unrestrained, especially in acting in a violent or punitive manner.
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see take off, glove.
Examples
“The public's duty is to take the role of prosecutor in seeking out the truth: and we ought to roll up our sleeves, take off the gloves, and wade into action.”
“Ben-Gurion's self-restraint was soon exhausted and the British now took off their gloves to crush the Arabs by all and any means: they collectively punished villages and at one point destroyed a whole neighbourhood of Jaffa.”
“So, for example, in the midst of social tensions and manpower shortages in Britain (December 1916), David Lloyd George came to head a war regime which took off its gloves in handling the domestic unrest and keeping dissidents, like Siegfried Sassoon and his famous antiwar letter, out of the public eye.”
“The Court is willing to take off its gloves for the most serious infringements, however.”
CEFR level
C2
Mastery
This word is part of the CEFR C2 vocabulary — mastery level.
This word is part of the CEFR C2 vocabulary — mastery level.