Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The coat of wool of a sheep or similar animal.
  • noun The yield of wool shorn from a sheep at one time.
  • noun A soft woolly covering or mass.
  • noun A soft, warm, lightweight, usually synthetic fabric with a deep pile, used primarily for clothing and blankets.
  • noun A garment, especially a shirt or jacket, made of such fabric.
  • transitive verb To defraud of money or property; swindle.
  • transitive verb To shear the fleece from.
  • transitive verb To cover with a fleece or similar covering.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To deprive of the fleece or natural covering of wool.
  • To clip or diminish, as a fleece: said of dishonest taking of goods or property.
  • To strip of money or property unfairly or under false pretenses; rob heartlessly; take from without mercy.
  • To spread over as if with a fleece of wool.
  • noun The coat of wool that covers a sheep, or that is shorn from a sheep at one time.
  • noun Something resembling a fleece of wool in quality or appearance.
  • noun Specifically— A textile fabric with a Soft silky pile, used for warmth, as for lining certain garments, gloves, etc.
  • noun The long and soft nap or pile of such a fabric.
  • noun The loose and thin sheet of cotton or wool coming from the breaking-card in the process of manufacture.
  • noun In heraldry, the woolly skin of a sheep, usually so depicted that it resembles the animal itself, suspended by means of a ring passing around its middle.
  • noun In a bison, the fat and lean meat which lies along the loin and ribs.
  • noun [⟨ fleece, v.] A snatch; an attempt to fleece.
  • noun In anat., white fibers, resembling wool, encircling the corpus dentatum in the cerebellum. Also called fleece of Stilling.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun 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.
  • noun Any soft woolly covering resembling a fleece.
  • noun (Manuf.) The fine web of cotton or wool removed by the doffing knife from the cylinder of a carding machine.
  • noun wool shorn from the sheep.
  • noun See under Golden.
  • transitive verb To deprive of a fleece, or natural covering of wool.
  • transitive verb To strip of money or other property unjustly, especially by trickery or fraud; to bring to straits by oppressions and exactions.
  • transitive verb rare To spread over as with wool.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable Hair or wool of a sheep or similar animal
  • noun uncountable Insulating skin with the wool attached
  • noun countable A textile similar to velvet, but with a longer pile that gives it a softness and a higher sheen.
  • noun countable An insulating wooly jacket
  • noun roofing Mat or felts composed of fibers, sometimes used as a membrane backer.
  • verb Con or trick someone out of money.
  • verb To shear the fleece from an animal (such as a sheep).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb shear the wool from
  • noun tanned skin of a sheep with the fleece left on; used for clothing
  • verb rip off; ask an unreasonable price
  • noun outer coat of especially sheep and yaks
  • noun a soft bulky fabric with deep pile; used chiefly for clothing
  • noun the wool of a sheep or similar animal

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English fles, from Old English flēos.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English flees, from Old English flēos. Cognate to Albanian flok ("hair") and Russian волос ("a hair").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Now if on Swithun’s feast the welkin lours

    And every penthouse streams with hasty showers,

    Twice twenty days shall clouds their fleeces drain

    And wash the pavement with incessant rain.

    - John Gay, cited here.

    July 20, 2009