fleece
noun
- insulating napped or pile fabric, sometimes knitted and often made from polyester
verb
- to strip of money or property by fraud or extortion or to remove the fleece from a sheep.
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /fliːs/ / /flɪjs/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English fles, flees, flese, from Old English flēos, flīes, flȳs, from Proto-West Germanic *fleus.
- Hair or wool of a sheep or similar animal.
“The Sun ſhall change, the Moon to change ſhall ceaſe; / The Gaits to clim-----the Sheep to yield the Fleece, / Ere ought by me be either ſaid or done, / Shall do thee Wrang, I ſwear by all aboon.”
“Wool became the substitute for money. […] In all the middle periods of British history, the fleece was the expression and the measure of national prosperity or calamity.”
- Insulating skin with the wool attached.
- A textile similar to velvet, but with a longer pile that gives it a softness and a higher sheen.
- An insulating wooly jacket.
- Mat or felts composed of fibers, sometimes used as a membrane backer.
- Any soft woolly covering resembling a fleece.
“Alas! in the morning the eaglet was gone; and, full of sorrow, they stooped to pick up the shining fleece with which the floor was spread. At their touch, every feather became a golden coin.”
- The fine web of cotton or wool removed by the doffing knife from the cylinder of a carding machine.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English fles, flees, flese, from Old English flēos, flīes, flȳs, from Proto-West Germanic *fleus.
- To con or trick (someone) out of money.
“There is a difference between bookmaking, an entirely respectable profession, and fleecing people, which isn’t.”
- To cut off the fleece from (a sheep or other animal).
“During spring shearing we have to fleece all the sheep in just a few days.”
- To cover with, or as if with, wool.