mantling
Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
cutaway of the earth
man·tle
(măn′tl)n.
1. A loose sleeveless coat worn over outer garments; a cloak.
2. Something that covers, envelops, or conceals: "On a summer night ... a mantle of dust hangs over the gravel roads" (John Dollard).
3. The role or appearance of an authoritative or important person: "a Carlylean conviction that in modern society a poet was obligated to assume the mantle of a prophet" (Richard D. Altick).
4. Variant of mantel.
5. The outer covering of a wall.
6. A zone of hot gases around a flame.
7. A device in gas lamps consisting of a sheath of threads that gives off brilliant illumination when heated by the flame.
8. Anatomy The cerebral cortex.
9. Geology The zone of the earth between the crust and the core.
10. The outer wall and casing of a blast furnace above the hearth.
11. The shoulder feathers, upper back, and sometimes the wings of a bird when differently colored from the rest of the body.
12.
a. A fold or pair of folds of the body wall that covers the internal organs and typically secretes the substance that forms the shell in mollusks and brachiopods.
b. The soft outer wall lining the shell of a tunicate or barnacle.
v. man·tled, man·tling, man·tles
v.tr.
1. To cover with a mantle.
2. To cover with something that acts like a mantle; cover, envelop, or conceal: "when the land was mantled in forest and prowled by lions, leopards, and wolves" (David Campbell).
v.intr.
1. To spread or become extended over a surface.
2. To become covered with a coating, as scum or froth on the surface of a liquid.
3. To blush: cheeks mantling with embarrassment.
[Middle English, from Old English mentel and from Old French mantel, both from Latin mantellum.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
mantling
(ˈmæntlɪŋ)n
(Heraldry) heraldry the drapery or scrollwork around a shield
[C16: from mantle]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014