fleece

Meanings

Noun

• Hair or wool of a sheep or similar animal
• 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.
• The fine web of cotton or wool removed by the doffing knife from the cylinder of a carding machine.

Verb

• To con or trick (someone) out of money.
• To shear the fleece from (a sheep or other animal).
• To cover with, or as if with, wool.

Origin

• From Middle English flees, flese, flus, fleos, from Old English flēos, flīes, flȳs, from Proto-West Germanic *fleus.