From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmantleman‧tle1 /ˈmæntl/ noun 1 → take on/assume/wear the mantle of something2 → a mantle of snow/darkness etc3 [countable]DCC a loose piece of outer clothing without sleeves, worn especially in former times4 [countable]DT a cover that is put over the flame of a gas or oil lamp to make it shine more brightly5 [singular] technicalHE the part of the Earth around the central core
Examples from the Corpus
mantle• Now he is giving himself the chance to be chosen by direct election again, thus gaining a mantle of legitimacy.• In this view, hot, insulated mantle wells up beneath a supercontinent, causing it to balloon upward.• Then another, smaller concentration shows up near the top of the lower mantle, around 745 miles down.• Inside this box, the hot, red upwellings of the mantle moved past cold, blue downwellings.• It extended the web of relationships under the mantle of a few comprehensive terms of relationship connoting close, primordial loyalties.mantlemantle2 verb [transitive] literaryCOVER to cover the surface of something→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
mantle• I turned aside to hide the joy that I could feel mantling my cheeks.• This deposit mantles the flanks of the pre-existing cone, but is no more than a few metres thick at most.Origin mantle1 (800-900) Old French mantel, from Latin mantellum “cloak” 