A: What are you reading?

    B: An essay by the environmentalist I told you about. He took off the gloves in this fearless essay criticizing the corruption and dysfunction in governments and energy companies.

    Note: This idiom means to “argue or compete without controlling your actions or feelings.” It is an expression borrowed from the game of boxing. As we see, today’s boxers wear thick gloves which are intended as cushions in order to lessen the pain when a boxer receives punch to the head. If a player takes the gloves off, then obviously he intends to inflict serious pain on the opponent. Therefore, when the gloves are off, somebody could seriously get hurt.