[man.tle] n [ME mantel, fr. OF, fr. L mantellum] (13c) 1 a: a loose sleeveless garment worn over other clothes: cloak b: a mantle regarded as a symbol of preeminence or authority "invested his people with the ~ of universal champions of justice --Denis Goulet"
2. a: something that covers, enfolds, or envelops b (1): a fold or lobe or pair of lobes of the body wall of a mollusk or brachiopod that in shell-bearing forms lines the shell and bears shell-secreting glands--see clam illustration (2): the soft external body wall that lines the test or shell of a tunicate or barnacle c: the outer wall and casing of a blast furnace above the hearth; broadly: an insulated support or casing in which something is heated
3: the back, scapulars, and wings of a bird
4: a lacy hood or sheath of some refractory material that gives light by incandescence when placed over a flame
5. a: regolith b: the part of the interior of a terrestrial planet and esp. the earth that lies beneath the lithosphere and above the central core
6: mantel
[2]mantle vb man.tled ; man.tling vt (13c): to cover with or as if with a mantle: cloak "the encroaching jungle growth that mantled the building --Sanka Knox" ~ vi 1: to become covered with a coating
2: to spread over a surface
3: blush "her rich face mantling with emotion --Benjamin Disraeli"