Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

mantle

mantle , noun

[Old English mantel, Old French mantel, French manteau, from Latin mantellum, mantelum, a cloth, napkin, cloak, mantle (compare mantele, mantile, towel, napkin); prob. from manus hand + the root of tela cloth. See Manual, Textile, and compare Mandil, Mantel, Mantilla.]

1.
A loose garment to be worn over other garments; an enveloping robe; a cloak.
a covering or concealing envelope.
[The] children are clothed with mantles of satin. — Bacon
The green mantle of the standing pool. — Shakespeare
Now Nature hangs her mantle green On every blooming tree. — Burns
2.
(Heraldry) Same as Mantling.
3.
(a) (Zoology) 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)
(Zoology) Any free, outer membrane.
(c)
(Zoology) The back of a bird together with the folded wings.
4.
(Architecture) A mantel. See Mantel.
5.
The outer wall and casing of a blast furnace, above the hearth. — Raymond
6.
(Hydraulic Engineering) A penstock for a water wheel.
7.
(Geology) 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.

Mantle , transitive verb

To cover or envelop, as with a mantle; to cloak; to hide; to disguise. — Shakespeare

Mantle , intransitive verb

1.
To unfold and spread out the wings, like a mantle; -- said of hawks. Also used figuratively.
Ne is there hawk which mantleth on her perch. — Spenser
Or tend his sparhawk mantling in her mew. — Bp. Hall
My frail fancy fed with full delight. Doth bathe in bliss, and mantleth most at ease. — Spenser
2.
To spread out; -- said of wings.
The swan, with arched neck Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows. — Milton
3.
To spread over the surface as a covering; to overspread; as, the scum mantled on the pool.
Though mantled in her cheek the blood. — Sir W. Scott
4.
To gather, assume, or take on, a covering, as froth, scum, etc.
There is a sort of men whose visages Do cream and mantle like a standing pond. — Shakespeare
Nor bowl of wassail mantle warm. — Tennyson