Definition of "mantilla"
mantilla
noun
plural mantillas
A lace veil of Spanish origin worn over a woman's hair and shoulders.
Quotations
[M]y eyes were oft times [on the] charmante maitresse de la maison, who glided among her guests in her flowing Spanish mantilla, and train of the clearest blonde, doing her devoirs with winning kindness, and showing how much benevolence of manner adds to beauty.
1836 July, “London Fashionable Chit-Chat”, in The Lady's Magazine and Museum of the Belles-lettres, Fine Arts, Music, Drama, Fashions, &c. (Improved Series. Enlarged.), volume IX, London: Dobbs & Co., Hemlock Court, Carey Street, Lincolns Inn (Formerly at 112, Fetter Lane), page 73
Still the mantilla preserved its sway; it had taken a fast hold of the affections of all classes of the feminine gender; and there is now as much chance of driving roast-beef from our shores as there is of transporting black mantillas. […] no squire's lady, no duke's duchess, no countess, and no queen, can or need, in these days of mantillas, be without one of these coverlids for the shoulders, these hiders of all deformities, and these friends to all ages and proportions. For there are mantillas from seven shillings to seven pounds,—of all sizes and shapes, with or without fringe, lace, tassels, and other ornaments.
1842 August, “Rushings; or British Popular Vagaries”, in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, volume XXVI, number CLII, London: G. W. Nickisson, 215 Regent Street, (Successor to the late James Fraser), page 223
Mantillas are larger than last year, and are generally all worn with a deep flouncing, either of the same material, or of black lace; the mantilla itself is also much trimmed with small ruchings of ribbon, guip and guipure lace, laid on quite flat. […] Black lace shawls and mantillas will always be in the best taste—the Spanish origin of the Empress Eugénie, having given her a penchant for these articles, the national mantilla of her country, of which we have borrowed the name.
1855, “Mantillas and Shawls”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion, volume XLVI, number 4, Philadelphia, Pa.: Abraham H. See, 106 Chestnut Street, page 578