fleece

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

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /fliːs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːs

fleece (countable and uncountable, plural fleeces)

1. (uncountable) Hair or wool of a sheep or similar animal
2. (uncountable) Insulating skin with the wool attached
3. (countable) A textile similar to velvet, but with a longer pile that gives it a softness and a higher sheen.
4. (countable) An insulating wooly jacket
5. (roofing) Mat or felts composed of fibers, sometimes used as a membrane backer.
6. Any soft woolly covering resembling a fleece.
7. The fine web of cotton or wool removed by the doffing knife from the cylinder of a carding machine.

fleece (third-person singular simple present fleeces, present participle fleecing, simple past and past participle fleeced)

1. (transitive) To con or trick (someone) out of money.

   There is a difference between bookmaking, an entirely respectable profession, and fleecing people, which isn’t.

   [1]

2. (transitive) To shear the fleece from (a sheep or other animal).

   During spring shearing we have to fleece all the sheep in just a few days.

3. (transitive) To cover with, or as if with, wool.

• (con): nickel and dime

Borrowed from English fleece.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfliːsi/, [ˈfliːs̠i]
• IPA^(key): /ˈfliːs/, [ˈfliːs̠] (often in compound terms)

fleece

1. Alternative spelling of fliisi

• As is the case with many loanwords, the inflection of this term is problematic. Kotus recommends "nalle" - category in writing, as shown above, but in speech the declension usually follows "risti" -category, see the declension table for fliisi.