1. A loose sleeveless cloak worn over outer garments.
2. A small circle of wire mesh in a gas or oil lamp that gives out incandescent light when heated by the flame it surrounds.
3. A role or position, especially one that can be passed from one person to another: "He assumed the mantle of the CEO of the company."
4. Something which envelops or covers something else: "The city was covered for over a week with a mantle of snow."
5. To unfold and to spread out the wings, like a mantle; for example, the way hawks do it.
6. The wings, shoulder feathers, and back feathers of a bird when colored differently from the rest of the body which enclose the body like a cloak.
7. The part of the brain that includes the convolutions (elevations on the surfaces of structures and the infolding of the tissues upon themselves), corpus callosum (arched bridge of nervous tissue that connects the two cerebral hemispheres, allowing communication between the right and left sides of the brain), and the fornix (fold in the shape of an arch of two bands of white fibers in the brain).
8. A tissue covering most of the body of mollusks which secretes the shell(s), and in shell-less mollusks , it is tough and protective.

The mantle is folded to enclose the mantle cavity, which contains the respiratory organs.

In squids, the mantle cavity has muscular walls which contract to force water out of the mantle cavity that propels the animal quickly through the water.

1. To cover with or as if with a cloak and to conceal by extending over a surface: "The streets and cars were mantled in snow."
2. To become covered with a coating; such as, scum or froth on the surface of a liquid.
3. The spreading of their wings over food as is done by hawks.