mantle
/ˈmæn.təl/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms mantles mantling mantled
- noun A piece of clothing somewhat like an open robe or cloak, especially that worn by Orthodox bishops.
- noun (figuratively) A figurative garment representing authority or status, capable of affording protection. “At the meeting, she finally assumed the mantle of leadership of the party.”
- noun (figuratively) Anything that covers or conceals something else; a cloak.
- noun (malacology) The body wall of a mollusc, from which the shell is secreted.
- noun (ornithology) The back of a bird together with the folded wings.
- noun The zone of hot gases around a flame.
- noun A gauzy fabric impregnated with metal nitrates, used in some kinds of gas and oil lamps and lanterns, which forms a rigid but fragile mesh of metal oxides when heated during initial use and then produces white light from the heat of the flame below it. (So called because it is hung above the lamp's flame like a mantel.)
- noun The outer wall and casing of a blast furnace, above the hearth.
- verb (transitive) To cover or conceal (something); to cloak; to disguise.
- verb (intransitive) To become covered or concealed.
- verb (intransitive) To spread like a mantle (especially of blood in the face and cheeks when a person flushes).
- verb To climb over or onto something.
- verb (falconry) The action of stretching out the wings to hide food.
- verb (falconry) The action of stretching a wing and the same side leg out to one side of the body.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
Mickey Mantle Mickey Charles Mantle blanket pallium mantel mantelpiece mantlepiece chimneypiece curtain drape drapery pall cape
Etymology
From Middle English mantel, from Old English mæntel, mentel (“sleeveless cloak”), from Proto-West Germanic *mantel; later reinforced by Anglo-Norman mantel, both from Latin mantellum (“covering, cloak”) (French manteau), diminutive of mantum (Spanish manto), probably from Gaulish *mantos, *mantalos (“trodden road”), from Proto-Celtic *mantos, *mantlos, from Proto-Indo-European *menH- (“tread, press together; crumble”). Compare Icelandic möttull. Doublet of manteau.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A loose garment to be worn over other garments; an enveloping robe; a cloak. Hence, figuratively, a covering or concealing envelope.
- noun Same as Mantling.
- verb To cover or envelop, as with a mantle; to cloak; to hide; to disguise. Shak.
- verb To unfold and spread out the wings, like a mantle; --said of hawks. Also used figuratively.
Etymology [OE. mantel, OF. mantel, F. manteau, fr. L. mantellum, mantelum, a cloth, napkin, cloak, mantle (cf. mantele, mantile, towel, napkin); prob. from manus hand + the root of tela cloth. See Manual, Textile, and cf. Mandil, Mantel, Mantilla.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “mantle”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details