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

   Golden fleece. See under Golden.
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	Fleece \Fleece\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fleeced; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Fleecing.]
   1. To deprive of a fleece, or natural covering of wool.
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   2. To strip of money or other property unjustly, especially
      by trickery or fraud; to bring to straits by oppressions
      and exactions.
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            Whilst pope and prince shared the wool betwixt them,
            the people were finely fleeced.       --Fuller.
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   3. To spread over as with wool. [R.] --Thomson.
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	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, fleece]
    3: a soft bulky fabric with deep pile; used chiefly for clothing
    4: outer coat of especially sheep and yaks [syn: wool,
       fleece]
    v 1: rip off; ask an unreasonable price [syn: overcharge,
         soak, surcharge, gazump, fleece, plume, pluck,
         rob, hook] [ant: undercharge]
    2: shear the wool from; "shear sheep" [syn: fleece, shear]

	

	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

	

	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.