Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—M

Mantel-piece

(A). A shelf over a fire-place, originally used for drying clothes.

“Around the spacious cupola, over the Italian fire-places, is a ledge to which are affixed pegs, on which postillions hung their wet clothes to dry. We call the shelves over the fire-places `mantel-pieces,' but we no longer hang our mantles on them to dry.” —Memoirs of Col. Macaroni.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Mantible
Mantalini
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