man·tle
(m
n
tl)
KEY
NOUN:
- A loose sleeveless coat worn over outer garments; a cloak.
- Something that covers, envelops, or conceals:
"On a summer night . . . a mantle of dust hangs over the gravel roads"
(John Dollard).
- Variant of mantel.
- The outer covering of a wall.
- A zone of hot gases around a flame.
- A device in gas lamps consisting of a sheath of threads that gives off brilliant illumination when heated by the flame.
-
Anatomy
The cerebral cortex.
-
Geology
The layer of the earth between the crust and the core.
- The outer wall and casing of a blast furnace above the hearth.
- The wings, shoulder feathers, and back of a bird when differently colored from the rest of the body.
-
Zoology
- A fold or pair of folds of the body wall that lines the shell and secretes the substance that forms the shell in mollusks and brachiopods.
- The soft outer wall lining the shell of a tunicate or barnacle.
VERB:
man·tled
,
man·tling
,
man·tles
VERB:
tr.
- To cover with or as if with a mantle; conceal. See Synonyms at clothe.
VERB:
intr.
- To spread or become extended over a surface.
- To become covered with a coating, as scum or froth on the surface of a liquid.
- To be overspread by blushes or colors:
a face that was mantled in joy.
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English, from Old English
mentel, and from Old French
mantel both from Latin
mantellum
