mantle

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Mantled p. pr. & vb. n. Mantling ] To cover or envelop, as with a mantle; to cloak; to hide; to disguise. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To unfold and spread out the wings, like a mantle; -- said of hawks. Also used figuratively. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ne is there hawk which mantleth on her perch. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Or tend his sparhawk mantling in her mew. Bp. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]

My frail fancy fed with full delight.
Doth bathe in bliss, and mantleth most at ease. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To spread out; -- said of wings. [ 1913 Webster ]

The swan, with arched neck
Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To spread over the surface as a covering; to overspread; as, the scum mantled on the pool. [ 1913 Webster ]

Though mantled in her cheek the blood. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To gather, assume, or take on, a covering, as froth, scum, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

There is a sort of men whose visages
Do cream and mantle like a standing pond. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Nor bowl of wassail mantle warm. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ 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. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A loose garment to be worn over other garments; an enveloping robe; a cloak. Hence, figuratively, a covering or concealing envelope. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ The ] children are clothed with mantles of satin. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

The green mantle of the standing pool. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Now Nature hangs her mantle green
On every blooming tree. Burns. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Her.) Same as Mantling. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Zool.) (a) The external fold, or folds, of the soft, exterior membrane of the body of a mollusk. It usually forms a cavity inclosing the gills. See Illusts. of Buccinum, and Byssus. (b) Any free, outer membrane. (c) The back of a bird together with the folded wings. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Arch.) A mantel. See Mantel. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. The outer wall and casing of a blast furnace, above the hearth. Raymond. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Hydraulic Engin.) A penstock for a water wheel. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (Geol.) The highly viscous shell of hot semisolid rock, about 1800 miles thick, lying under the crust of the Earth and above the core. Also, by analogy, a similar shell on any other planet. [ PJC ]

adj. Covered with or as if with clothes or a wrap or cloak.
Syn. -- cloaked, clothed, draped, wrapped. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A common black-striped reddish-brown ground squirrel (Citellus lateralis) of western North America, resembling a large chipmunk. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A shelf that projects from the wall above a fireplace; a mantel; as, in England they call a mantelpiece a chimneypiece.
Syn. -- mantel, mantelpiece, mantle, chimneypiece. [ WordNet 1.5 ]