fleece
Americannoun
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fleeces
plural
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the coat of wool that covers a sheep or a similar animal.
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the wool shorn from a sheep at one shearing.
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something resembling a fleece.
a fleece of clouds in a blue sky.
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a fabric with a soft, silky pile, used for warmth, as for lining garments.
-
the soft nap or pile of such a fabric.
verb (used with object)
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fleeces,
present (3rd person singular)
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fleeced,
past participle, past
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fleecing
present participle
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to deprive of money or belongings by fraud, hoax, or the like; swindle.
He fleeced the stranger of several dollars.
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to remove the fleece of (a sheep).
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to overspread, as with a fleece; fleck with fleecelike masses.
a host of clouds fleecing the summer sky.
noun
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the coat of wool that covers the body of a sheep or similar animal and consists of a mass of crinkly hairs
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the wool removed from a single sheep
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something resembling a fleece in texture or warmth
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sheepskin or a fabric with soft pile, used as a lining for coats, etc
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a warm polyester fabric with a brushed nap, used for outdoor garments
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a jacket or top made from such a fabric
verb
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to defraud or charge exorbitantly; swindle
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another term for shear
Usage
What does fleece mean? Fleece is the outer coat of wool that covers a sheep, goat, llama, or similar animal, as in Wool made from a sheep’s fleece can be scratchy, but wool from llama’s fleece is soft and buttery. Fleece can also mean the wool collected from these animals or fabric made from it, as in Sheep farmers depend on getting good prices for recently cut fleeces to keep their farms going. Related to these senses, you can use fleece as a verb to mean shearing, or cutting, the wool off a sheep, as in The farmer’s son spent all morning fleecing the flock of sheep. Fleece also refers to fabrics or garments made from the fleece of an animal or a fabric that resembles the texture of a fleece. Coats and jackets made with polyester with a soft, silky pile are commonly referred to as fleeces. Finally, fleece is commonly used to mean cheating or swindling a person out of money, as in I was fleeced out of a hundred dollars this morning by a fake insurance salesman. Example: Children always love touching the soft fleece of the llamas at the petting zoo.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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fleecesimple
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fleecessimple
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have fleecedperfect
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has fleecedperfect
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am fleecingprogressive
-
are fleecingprogressive
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is fleecingprogressive
-
have been fleecingperfect progressive
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has been fleecingperfect progressive
Past
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fleecedsimple
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had fleecedperfect
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was fleecingprogressive
-
were fleecingprogressive
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had been fleecingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fleece
before 1000; Middle English flees, Old English flēos, flȳs; cognate with Middle Dutch vlies, Middle High German vlius, German Vlies
Explanation
A fleece is a sheep's coat. Or a goat's. Or a yak's. A person's coat can be called a fleece, too, if it comes from a sheep or goat or a yak or even if it just looks like it did. You can also use fleece in an informal way to mean cheating someone. Remember how Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow? Well, it was such a nice, clean fleece that Mary tricked the lamb into trusting her, then robbed him of his fleece and turned it into a bomber jacket and a pair of boots. She totally fleeced him!
Vocabulary lists containing fleece
"The Odyssey," Vocabulary from Part 1 of the epic poem
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Mockingbird
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Hello, Universe
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"This type of fleece, which contains kemp," Bellis explains, "that will tend to go into a carpet blend because of the colour."
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
In any coziness competition, if such contests exist, fleece is tough to beat.
From Salon ● May 17, 2026
His outfit, an Off White hoodie and a fleece bucket hat with a tortoise on the front, is just as uplifting and whimsical as his attitude.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2026
Instead, gazing back at me was a 44-year-old mom in an ill-fitting fleece, the style just as unflattering as it was all those years ago.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 25, 2026
Gingerly he lifted the hem of the cape, under which I was wearing a sweater and a zipped fleece jacket.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Bellis said he could spot 68 different grades of wool as he had worked through the fleeces, with the best destined for formal wear while others ended up as slug pellets.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
A clothing charity has helped save thousands of brand new coats, fleeces and other garments from going to landfill by removing company branding and donating them to people in need.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
Homeowners struggle to get a permit to add a bedroom, and taxpayers can’t get through to the agency that fleeces them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
A federal judge shows how this hospital ‘discount’ fleeces drug makers and patients.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
Old Eurykleia saw him first, for that day she was covering handsome chairs nearby with clean fleeces.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
As an example of money wasted by LAHSA’s lack of financial controls, Turner cited the recent federal indictment alleging a homeless services provider fleeced the system of $23 million in fraudulent billings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
No revolutionary, Wood writes, “defended with more vehemence common ordinary people against the aristocracy—‘against being ridden like horses, fleeced like sheep, worked like cattle, and fed and cloathed like swine and hounds.’
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
"Every single thing coming out of this tournament so far is just fans getting fleeced," he added.
From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2026
Related: ‘I have lost nearly everything’: My mother’s trustee changed her $1 million will and my attorney fleeced me.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 16, 2026
He met up with his brother Walter in Chicago, where he was fleeced and pickpocketed from the time he hit town till the time he left.
From "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother" by James McBride
Not only did this nonleadership fail to halt existing fraud, criminals expanded over the next seven years into fleecing programs for disabilities, adult daycare, autism, substance abuse and housing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026
More than 40 musicians have signed a letter urging the UK prime minister to "stop touts from fleecing fans" and cap the price that can be charged when tickets are resold.
From BBC ● Nov. 12, 2025
The fleecing of Kevin, who ProPublica agreed to identify by first name only, was a textbook example of pig butchering.
From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2025
This revenue share is for all media—not just books—but illustrates the extreme financial incentive prisons have to participate with prison telecom companies in this fleecing of incarcerated people.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2024
Burt employed bizarre accounting methods in order to conceal his fleecing of the Osage.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
