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Glite Dictionary
🎗️ Decorative cloth 🦅 Bird covering food
mantling

mantling

9.8
A bird of prey spreading its wings over its food to hide or protect it
  • noun
  • /ˈmæntəlɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : cubrir
  • As the falcon returned to the nest, it began mantling its prey to protect it.

Right away I found myself crouching over the kill like a mantling hawk.

Examples

  • I observed the owl mantling its small game, ensuring that no other bird could steal it.

  • The eagle was mantling over its catch to keep it hidden from other predators.

  • Right away I found myself crouching over the kill like a mantling hawk.

    Stanford

Antonyms

to expose
146 2.8

Make something visible by removing a cover or letting light reach it

How Protective

shielding
2 4.2
mantling
  • Specialized
9.8
watching
1 1.0

Surface Forms

mantling singular
mantlings plural

Morphology

mantling = mantle (transparent) = mantle + ing

The meaning 'covering or sheltering' is directly derived from the verb 'mantle' with the regular -ing nominalization/participle.

Etymology

Mantling comes from an old word for a 'cloak', the same root as English mantle. Birds mantle when they spread their wings like a cloak to 'cover' and protect their food, so mantling names that covering behaviour.