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What is "fleece"

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fleece
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
fleece
I.noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ fleece-lined slippers
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A lamb's fleece was sprawled in the middle of the stage.
▪ Early wills and inventories show records for fleece, flax and hemp in many areas.
▪ In general, the same clothing was used underneath - Rhoval/Modal thermals and Polartec 200 fleece.
▪ Its white fleece runs on over her fingers.
▪ Locally, fleece may be available from your garden centre but do check the quality and price before buying.
▪ The drawcords on the fleece and the Merlin sleeping bag pull in freely and close tightly if required.
▪ Then they unrolled as a silver-white fleece, under the silent cold light of the moon.
▪ Thinsulate fleece: heat reflective fleece.
II.verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Authorities estimate at least 300 elderly couples were fleeced in the scheme.
▪ She fleeced him for everything he had.
▪ She estimates he fleeced her of about £50,000 by tricking her into buying fake antiques.
▪ Some airport shops are accused of fleecing their customers, who don't have any choice but to use them.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But nothing's worse than driving into an auto repair shop, sight unseen, and being fleeced.
▪ Nevertheless, he thought Theo unduly alarmist in warning him that women like her were out to fleece him.
▪ Sturdy rogues intent on fleecing me, as I was them.
▪ The Crown Prosecution Service is seeking to seize up to £40m that he fleeced from 16,000 people.
▪ The technology is ready to roll and it's not like they've shied away in the past from fleecing motorists.
▪ The Tsar, the landowner, Denikin's troops, and your Comrades all fleeced him.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fleece

Fleece \Fleece\ (fl[=e]s), n. [OE. flees, AS. fle['o]s; akin to D. flies, vlies.]

  1. The entire coat of wool 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.

Fleece

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.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
fleece

1530s in the literal sense of "to strip (a sheep) of fleece," from fleece (n.). From 1570s in the figurative meaning "to cheat, swindle, strip of money." Related: Fleeced; fleecer; fleecing.

fleece

"wool coat of a sheep," Old English fleos, flies "fleece, wool, fur, sealskin," from West Germanic *flusaz (cognates: Middle Dutch vluus, Dutch vlies, Middle High German vlius, German Vlies), which is of uncertain origin; probably from PIE *pleus- "to pluck," also "a feather, fleece" (cognates: Latin pluma "feather, down," Lithuanian plunksna "feather").

Wiktionary
fleece

n. 1 (context uncountable English) Hair or wool of a sheep or similar animal 2 (context uncountable English) Insulating skin with the wool attached 3 (context countable English) A textile similar to velvet, but with a longer pile that gives it a softness and a higher sheen. 4 (context countable English) An insulating wooly jacket 5 (context roofing English) Mat or felts composed of fibers, sometimes used as a membrane backer. 6 Any soft woolly covering resembling a fleece. 7 The fine web of cotton or wool removed by the doffing knife from the cylinder of a carding machine. vb. 1 to con or trick someone out of money 2 to shear the fleece from an animal (such as a sheep)

WordNet
fleece

  1. n. the wool of a sheep or similar animal

  2. tanned skin of a sheep with the fleece left on; used for clothing [syn: sheepskin]

  3. a soft bulky fabric with deep pile; used chiefly for clothing

  4. outer coat of especially sheep and yaks [syn: wool]

  5. v. rip off; ask an unreasonable price [syn: overcharge, soak, surcharge, gazump, plume, pluck, rob, hook] [ant: undercharge]

  6. shear the wool from; "shear sheep" [syn: shear]

Wikipedia
Fleece

Fleece may refer to:

  • A woollen coat of a domestic sheep or long-haired goat, especially after being sheared (but before being processed into yarn or thread)
  • Polar fleece, a type of polyester fabric
  • Horticultural fleece, a polypropylene fabric used to protect plants
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "fleece".

And the ceiling fair that rose aboon The white and feathery fleece of noon.

And great as is the hide of a yearling ox or stag, which huntsmen call a brocket, so great in extent was the fleece all golden above.

Sauveur, where the stalls of the Knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece, which was founded at Bruges, are to be seen in the choir, and over one of them the arms of Edward IV.

All the same, the vaunted honour and loyalty of the Swiss do not prevent them from fleecing strangers, at least as much as the Dutch, but the greenhorns who let themselves be cheated, learn thereby that it is well to bargain before-hand, and then they treat one well and charge reasonably.

Beginning with thee, O Phoebus, I will recount the famous deeds of men of old, who, at the behest of King Pelias, down through the mouth of Pontus and between the Cyanean rocks, sped well-benched Argo in quest of the golden fleece.

O sir, Miles et Eques of the Garter, Bath, and Golden Fleece, consider your dignities, and my old age--and my great family--nine children--oh, Sir Richard, and eight of them girls!

The genetic profile of the individual you nicknamed Brown Fleece contains both the intron suite and the mutant exon typical of demiclones.

All stopped about fifty feet from half-a-dozen animals of a large size, with strong horns bent back and flattened towards the point, with a woolly fleece, hidden under long silky hair of a tawny color.

I was a sheep for the fleecing, and if some of the fleecers got their fingers catched in the shears, it was their own fault.

You are fleeced by these landlords for their private benefit, and as well kept under by the public burdens of State, wherein while the richer sort favour themselves, ye are gnawn to the very bones.

Sauveur with its Gobelin tapestries and choir stalls emblazoned with the Golden Fleece.

She was kind, laughing, and defied me to the conquest of a fleece not of gold, but of ebony, which the youth of Metz had assaulted in vain.

I told him of what had happened to me through his hopeful pupil getting himself fleeced.

Lord Pembroke would have decorated him with the Order of the Golden Fleece at least.

Consequently when he left the carriage at Rinks, he had two of their jujubes sticking in his damp fleece.