fleece Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the wool of a sheep or similar animal
  2. noun tanned skin of a sheep with the fleece left on; used for clothing
    sheepskin.
  3. noun a soft bulky fabric with deep pile; used chiefly for clothing
  4. noun outer coat of especially sheep and yaks
    wool.
  5. verb rip off; ask an unreasonable price
    soak; plume; pluck; hook; overcharge; rob; gazump; surcharge.
  6. verb shear the wool from
    shear.
    • shear sheep

WordNet

Fleece noun
Etymology
OE. flees, AS. fleós; akin to D. flies, vlies .
Definitions
  1. The entire coat of wood that covers a sheep or other similar animal; also, the quantity shorn from a sheep, or animal, at one time.
    Who shore me Like a tame wether, all my precious fleece. Milton.
  2. Any soft woolly covering resembling a fleece.
  3. (Manuf.) The fine web of cotton or wool removed by the doffing knife from the cylinder of a carding machine.
Fleece transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Fleeced ; present participle & verbal noun Fleecing
Definitions
  1. To deprive of a fleece, or natural covering of wool.
  2. To strip of money or other property unjustly, especially by trickery or frand; to bring to straits by oppressions and exactions.
    Whilst pope and prince shared the wool betwixt them, the people were finely fleeced. Fuller.
  3. To spread over as with wool. R. Thomson.

Webster 1913