Fleece

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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.
        [1913 Webster]


  
              Who shore me
              Like a tame wether, all my precious fleece.
                                                    --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Any soft woolly covering resembling a fleece.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Manuf.) The fine web of cotton or wool removed by the
        doffing knife from the cylinder of a carding machine.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Fleece wool}, wool shorn from the sheep.
  
     {Golden fleece}. See under {Golden}.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Fleece \Fleece\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Fleeced}; p. pr. & vb. n.
     {Fleecing}.]
     1. To deprive of a fleece, or natural covering of wool.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. To strip of money or other property unjustly, especially
        by trickery or fraud; to bring to straits by oppressions
        and exactions.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Whilst pope and prince shared the wool betwixt them,
              the people were finely fleeced.       --Fuller.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. To spread over as with wool. [R.] --Thomson.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

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

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  203 Moby Thesaurus words for "fleece":
     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
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Fleece
     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.