mantelet, mantlet
(ˈmæntlɪt)
Forms: 5 mauntolet, mantilett, 5–6 mantilet, 6 mantellet(t, 8 mantalet, 9 mantellette, 6, 8–9 mantlet, 4– mantelet.
[a. OF. mantelet, dim. of mantel (F. manteau) mantle, mantel ns. Cf. It. mantelletto.]
1. A kind of short, loose, sleeveless cape, cloak, or mantle covering the shoulders.
| c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1305 A Mantelet vp on his shulder hangynge Bretful of Rubies reede. 1440 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) II. 76 Item lego..Johannæ Hawnserd, sorori meæ, unam mantilet cum quatuos barbys et duobus forhedes. Katerinæ Thornyff unam mantilett. 1740 tr. De Mouhy's Fort. Country Maid (1741) I. 224 She had..a coarse red Mantelet over her Shoulders, adorned with Shells. 1772–84 Cook's Voy. (1790) IV. 1375 Mantalets composed of feathers, so..beautifully arranged, as even our English ladies would not disdain to wear. 1844 Thackeray Little Trav. Wks. (Biogr. ed.) VI. 275 A lady in a little lace mantelet. 1887 Daily News 8 July 7/6 Coloured Velvet and Jet Mantelets. |
† b. = mantelletta. Obs.
| 1602 Segar Hon. Mil. & Civ. ii. xvii. 89 The Soueraigne, Cardinals, Prelats, Commanders, and Officers, by Order..wearing Mantels and Mantelets..goe to the Church to heare the Euensong. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Mantelet, a short Purple Mantle which the Bishops of France wear over their Rochet upon some Occasions. |
† c. A woollen covering for a horse. Obs.
| a 1440 Sir Degrev. 1182 Greyth myn hors on hore gere And lok that thei be gay; That they be trapped a get In topteler and mauntolet. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 76 The whiche horse was Trapped in a Mantellet. |
2. Mil. a. A movable shelter used to cover the approach of men-at-arms when besieging a fortified place. (Cf. mantel n. 1.) Obs. exc. Hist.
| 1524 in Hakluyt Voy. (1599) II. i. 82 Beside the sayd mantellets that shot against the wall of England and Spaine with great bombards, were two mantellets in an hie place..in the which were certaine double gunnes [etc.]. 1603 North's Plutarch, Miltiades (1612) 1230 Then hauing set vp his Gabions and Mantelets, he came neare the wals. 1731 J. Gray Gunnery Pref. 10 The most considerable..answer nearly to our Penthouses, Mantlets, Galleries, and Blinds. 1819 Scott Ivanhoe xxvii, They bring forward mantelets and pavisses, and the archers muster on the skirts of the wood. 1885 Bible (R.V.) Nahum ii. 5 They make haste to the wall thereof and the mantelet is prepared. 1894 F. D. Swift Jas. I of Aragon 275 Another instrument common in siege operations of this period, was the Mantlet. |
b. A screen or curtain, now usually of rope, to protect men working a gun from a enemy's bullets; with fortress guns mounted in casemates, serving also to prevent the smoke from the gun when fired from entering the casemate.
| 1859 Gentl. Mag. I. 123 The Russians returned to the use of the old cannon mantlet in the Crimean war. 1879 Nugent in Encycl. Brit. IX. 453 ‘Mantlets’..are now invariably made of this material [sc. rope]. |
c. A bullet-proof shelter from which firing results can be observed and signalled.
| 1874 Proc. Nat. Rifle Assoc. 94 The markers..must retire into their mantelets as soon as the 1st gun..is discharged. 1880 Daily Tel. 9 Dec., Officers, in telegraphic communication with the firing-points, will be posted in mantlets before the targets. |