To cover or wrap with a mantle; to envelop or cloak something as if with a garment.
From the prefix em- (to cause to be or put in) plus mantle (a cloak or covering), following the pattern of verbs like 'empower' and 'embrace.'
This verb is beautifully archaic—it captures a poetic sense of wrapping something in fabric or metaphorically in protection, but it lost out to simpler verbs like 'cloak' and 'wrap' in the competition for modern English's attention.
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