fleece
/fliːs/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/flɪjs/
fleece noun: hair or wool of a sheep or similar animal.
Noun
fleece (countable and uncountable, plural fleeces)
- 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.1730, Allan Ramsay, “[Act II, Scene IV]”, in The Gentle Shepherd: A Scots Paſtoral-Comedy, page 23
- 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.1837, William Youatt, “Preface”, in Sheep: Their Breeds, Management and Diseases. […] (Library of Useful Knowledge), London: Baldwin and Cradock
- 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.1879 January, Ellis Clare, “The Christmas Eaglet”, in Ballou's Monthly Magazine, volume 49, number 1, Boston: Thomes & Talbot
- The fine web of cotton or wool removed by the doffing knife from the cylinder of a carding machine.
Verb
fleece (third-person singular simple present fleeces, present participle fleecing, simple past and past participle fleeced)
- To con or trick (someone) out of money.
- There is a difference between bookmaking, an entirely respectable profession, and fleecing people, which isn’t.2015 August 2, “All bets are off: why bookmakers aren’t playing fair”, in The Observer, archived from the original on 21 Jan 2020
- Synonyms:
- swindle
- 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.
- Synonyms:
- shear
- To cover with, or as if with, wool.
fleece meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
fleece in Tamil
- உரோமம், கம்பளி, மென்கம்பளி, விலங்குக்கம்பளி, பணம் எடுக்க
fleece in Urdu
- بھیڑ کی کھال, چمڑی ادھیڑنا, کھال اترنا, لوٹنا, نوچنا
fleece in Bengali
- আচ্ছাদিত করা, লুণ্ঠন করা, ঠকাইয়া লত্তয়া
fleece in Malayalam
- മുറിച്ചെടുക്കുന്ന കമ്പിളിരോമം, ആട്ടുരോമം, രോമം പോലെയുള്ള വസ്തു
More languagesFewer languages
- fleece in Kannada
- ತುಪ್ಪಟ, ಉಣ್ಣೆ, ಬಂಡೆ, ಅಪಹರಿಸು
- fleece in Sanskrit
- मेष meṣá
- fleece in Tagalog
- balahibo ng tupa
- fleece in Persian
- پشم چیدن pašm čidan, فریز کردن fariz kardan
Examples of fleece in a sentence
- Mary had a little lamb, its fleece as white as snow.
- Part of the fleece was caked with manure, so we had to clean it.
- Sound but more workaday fleeces are batched to make roving and yarn.
Synonyms of fleece
Forms of fleece
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | fleeces |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | fleeces |
| present participle | fleecing |
| past participle | fleeced |
| past | fleeced |
Origin of fleece
From Middle English fles, flees, flese, from Old English flēos, flīes, flȳs, from Proto-West Germanic *fleus.
Words formed from fleece
- China fleece vine
- Chinese fleece vine
- defleece
- feather fleece
- fleeceflower
- fleecehold
- fleeceless
- fleecelike
- fleece rot
- fleece vine
- fleeceware
- fleecewear
- fleece wool
- fleece worm
- fleecy
- Golden Fleece
- green fleece
- microfleece
- polar fleece
- smooth golden fleece
- fleeceable
- fleecer
Phrases with fleece
Words that rhyme with fleece
Questions about fleece
- What does fleece mean?
- Fleece means hair or wool of a sheep or similar animal.
- What is fleece in Tamil?
- Fleece in Tamil is உரோமம், கம்பளி, மென்கம்பளி. See Fleece meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is fleece?
- Fleece can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce fleece?
- Fleece is pronounced /fliːs/.
- What is the plural of fleece?
- The plural of fleece is fleeces.
Words near fleece in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fleece (page history and authors); fleece (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fleece (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fleece (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fleece (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fleece (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); मेष (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-fleece.ogg.
Cite this entry: “fleece.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fleece. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.