Adjacent Words

Fleece definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

FLEECE, n. flees. [L. vellus, from vello, to pluck or tear off.]
The coat of wool shorn from a sheep at one time.
FLEECE, v.t.
1. To shear off a covering or growth of wool.
2. To strip of money or property; to take from, by severe exactions, under color of law or justice, or pretext of necessity, or by virtue of authority. Arbitrary princes fleece their subjects; and clients complain that they are sometimes fleeced by their lawyers.
This word is rarely or never used for plundering in war by a licentious soldiery; but is properly used to express a stripping by contributions levied on a conquered people.
3. To spread over as with wool; to make white.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the wool of a sheep or similar animal
2: tanned skin of a sheep with the fleece left on; used for clothing [syn: sheepskin, fleece]
3: a soft bulky fabric with deep pile; used chiefly for clothing
4: outer coat of especially sheep and yaks [syn: wool, fleece] v
1: rip off; ask an unreasonable price [syn: overcharge, soak, surcharge, gazump, fleece, plume, pluck, rob, hook] [ant: undercharge]
2: shear the wool from; "shear sheep" [syn: fleece, shear]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English flees, from Old English fl?os; akin to Middle High German vlius fleece and perhaps to Latin pluma feather, down Date: before 12th century 1. a. the coat of wool covering a wool-bearing animal (as a sheep) b. the wool obtained from a sheep at one shearing 2. a. any of various soft or woolly coverings b. a soft bulky deep-piled knitted or woven fabric used chiefly for clothing II. transitive verb (fleeced; fleecing) Date: 1537 1. a. to strip of money or property by fraud or extortion b. to charge excessively for goods or services 2. to remove the fleece from ; shear 3. to dot or cover with fleecy masses

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a the woolly covering of a sheep or a similar animal. b the amount of wool sheared from a sheep at one time. 2 something resembling a fleece, esp.: a a woolly or rough head of hair. b a soft warm fabric with a pile, used for lining coats etc. c a white cloud, a blanket of snow, etc. 3 Heraldry a representation of a fleece suspended from a ring. --v.tr. 1 (often foll. by of) strip (a person) of money, valuables, etc.; swindle. 2 remove the fleece from (a sheep etc.); shear. 3 cover as if with a fleece (a sky fleeced with clouds). Phrases and idioms: fleece-picker Austral. & NZ = FLEECY. Golden Fleece see GOLDEN. Derivatives: fleeceable adj. fleeced adj. (also in comb.). Etymology: OE fleos, fles f. WG

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Fleece Fleece, n. [OE. flees, AS. fle['o]s; akin to D. flies, vlies .] 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 wool, wool shorn from the sheep. Golden fleece. See under Golden.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Fleece Fleece, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fleeced; p. pr. & vb. n. Fleecing.] 1. To deprive of a fleece, or natural covering of wool. 2. To strip of money or other property unjustly, especially by trickery or fraud; 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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(fleeces, fleecing, fleeced) 1. A sheep's fleece is the coat of wool that covers it. N-COUNT 2. A fleece is the wool that is cut off one sheep in a single piece. N-COUNT 3. If you fleece someone, you get a lot of money from them by tricking them or charging them too much. (INFORMAL) She claims he fleeced her out of thousands of pounds. = swindle VERB: V n out of n, also V n 4. Fleece is a soft warm artificial fabric. A fleece is also a jacket or other garment made from this fabric. N-VAR

Easton's Bible Dictionary

the wool of a sheep, whether shorn off or still attached to the skin (Deut. 18:4; Job 31:20). The miracle of Gideon's fleece (Judg. 6:37-40) consisted in the dew having fallen at one time on the fleece without any on the floor, and at another time in the fleece remaining dry while the ground was wet with dew.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

fles.

See GIDEON; SHEEP; WOOL.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Clip, shear, deprive of fleece. 2. Strip, rob, plunder, despoil, rifle, steal from. 3. Supply with fleece. 4. Cover fleecily, shroud softly, wrap in misty clouds, fold in snow.

Moby Thesaurus

Leatherette, Leatheroid, alabaster, bare, beat, beguile of, bilk, bleed, bleed white, blubber, breeze, bristle, bunco, burn, butter, capillament, chalk, cheat, chisel, chouse, chouse out of, cilium, clay, clip, coat, cog, cog the dice, con, cozen, crib, crop, cushion, cuticle, defraud, denudate, denude, deplume, depredate, dermis, despoil, diddle, displume, divest, do, do in, do out of, dough, down, drain, driven snow, dry, eiderdown, euchre, exhaust, exploit, expose, feather bed, feathers, fell, finagle, flam, flay, flesh, flimflam, floss, flour, flue, fluff, foam, fob, forage, foray, freeboot, fudge, fur, furring, gouge, gull, gut, gyp, hair, have, head, head of hair, hide, hocus, hocus-pocus, hold up, horsehair, hustle, imitation fur, imitation leather, impoverish, integument, ivory, jacket, kapok, lay bare, lay open, leather, leather paper, lily, locks, loot, maggot, mane, maraud, mat, milk, mop, mulct, outer layer, outer skin, overcharge, overprice, overtax, pack the deal, paper, pearl, pelt, peltry, pick clean, pigeon, pile, pillage, pillow, pluck, plunder, plush, practice fraud upon, prey on, profiteer, pubescence, pubic hair, pudding, puff, putty, raid, ransack, ravage, raven, ravish, rawhide, reive, remove, rifle, rind, rip off, rob, rook, rope in, rubber, sack, satin, scam, screw, sell gold bricks, setula, shag, shave, shear, sheath, sheet, shock, shortchange, silk, silver, skin, skins, snow, soak, spoil, spoliate, stack the cards, stick, sting, strip, strip bare, suck dry, surcharge, swan, swansdown, sweat, sweep, swindle, take, take a dive, tegument, thatch, thimblerig, thistledown, throw a fight, tresses, uncloak, uncover, unsheathe, unveil, vair, velvet, victimize, wax, wool, zephyr