Fleece

n. [A-S. fleós, flys, L. Ger. flūs, M. L. Ger. & M. D. vlūs, D. vlies, N. H. Ger. flīes, vlies.] 1. The coat of wool that covers a sheep, or that is shorn from a sheep at one time. Who shore me Like a tame wether all my precious fleece. Milton.

2. Any soft wooly covering resembling a fleece.
3. (Manuf.) The loose and thin wadding of cotton or wool coming from the breaking-card.

v. t. [imp. & p. p. FLEECED (fleest); p. pr. & vb. n. FLEECING.]

1. To deprive of a fleece, or natural covering of wool.
2. To strip of money or property; to deprive of property cruelly under cover of law; to deprive of property by exorbitant or pressing demands; to bring to straits by oppressions and exactions; to rob; to steal from.

Whilst pope and prince shared the wool betwixt them, the people were finely fleeced. Fuller. 3. To spread over as with wool. Thomson.