Fleece

[flees] /flis/

noun
1.
the coat of wool that covers a sheep or a similar animal.
2.
the wool shorn from a sheep at one shearing.
3.
something resembling a fleece:
a fleece of clouds in a blue sky.
4.
a fabric with a soft, silky pile, used for warmth, as for lining garments.
5.
the soft nap or pile of such a fabric.
verb (used with object), fleeced, fleecing.
6.
to deprive of money or belongings by fraud, hoax, or the like; swindle:
He fleeced the stranger of several dollars.
7.
to remove the fleece of (a sheep).
8.
to overspread, as with a fleece; fleck with fleecelike masses:
a host of clouds fleecing the summer sky.
/fliːs/
noun
1.
the coat of wool that covers the body of a sheep or similar animal and consists of a mass of crinkly hairs
2.
the wool removed from a single sheep
3.
something resembling a fleece in texture or warmth
4.
sheepskin or a fabric with soft pile, used as a lining for coats, etc
5.
a warm polyester fabric with a brushed nap, used for outdoor garments
6.
a jacket or top made from such a fabric
verb (transitive)
7.
to defraud or charge exorbitantly; swindle
8.
another term for shear (sense 1)
n.

Old English fleos, from West Germanic *flusaz (cf. Middle Dutch vluus, Dutch vlies, Middle High German vlius, German Vlies), probably from PIE *pleus- “to pluck,” also “a feather, fleece” (cf. Latin pluma “feather, down,” Lithuanian plunksna “feather”).
v.

1530s in the literal sense of “to strip a sheep of fleece;” 1570s in the figurative meaning “to cheat, swindle,” from fleece (n.). Related: Fleeced; fleecing.

verb

To cheat or swindle: get back the money he’d fleeced me out of/ For these traders the function of the outside public speculator is to be fleeced (1577+)

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.