fleece
Americannoun
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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.
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the soft nap or pile of such a fabric.
verb (used with object)
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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
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are fleecingprogressive
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is fleecingprogressive
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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
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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:
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
This is worse because her attorney took an oath — to do no harm and protect his client, not fleece her.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 19, 2026
I leaned way back to gaze at the blanket of blue sky where a few small clouds hung, white as the fleece of a new lamb.
From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac
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
Three generations of the Hartley family, wearing the matching blue fleeces introduced by the business 15 years ago, are stood inside the shop.
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2024
You can also buy hoodies, half-snap fleeces, dog leashes and dopp kits featuring the A24 logo.
From New York Times ● Nov. 11, 2023
Outside in the entry way he made his bed—raw oxhide spread on level ground, and heaped up fleeces, left from sheep the Akhaians killed.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
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
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
Mr Simkin asked if he had "fleeced" others to pay for his lifestyle, and the defendant replied: "No."
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2025
Six years later, the deal for George is considered tragically lopsided, the Clippers fleeced and forced to watch assets they surrendered lift the Oklahoma City Thunder to within three wins of an NBA championship.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2025
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
“These groups have been fleecing taxpayers and Veterans for far too long,” VA Secretary Doug Collins was quoted.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2026
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
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.
