Webster's English Dictionary

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mantle

1. man.tle \'mant-*l\ n [ME mantel, fr. OF, fr. L mantellum] 1: a loose 
   sleeveless garment worn over other clothes : CLOAK  2a: something that 
   covers, enfolds, or envelops  2b1: a fold or lobe or pair of lobes of the 
   body wall of a mollusk or brach iopod lining the shell in shell-bearing 
   forms and bearing shell-secreting glands 2b2: the soft external body wall 
   that lines the test or shell of a tunicate  or barnacle 2c: the outer wall 
   and casing of a blast furnace above the hearth  3: the back, scapulars, and 
   wings of a bird  4: a lacy hood or sheath of some refractory material that 
   gives light by in candescence when placed over a flame 5a: MANTLEROCK  5b: 
   the part of the earth's interior beneath the lithosphere and above the  
   central core 6: MANTEL 
2. mantle \'mant-lin, -*l-in\ vb or man.tling : to cover with or as if with 
   a mantle : CLOAK  1: to become covered with a coating  2: to spread over a 
   surface  3: BLUSH