Fleece (flēs), n. [OE.
flees, AS. fleós; 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, 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.
