fleece
pronunciation
How to pronounce fleece in British English:
UK [fli:s]
How to pronounce fleece in American English:
US [flis]
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- Noun:
- the wool of a sheep or similar animal
- tanned skin of a sheep with the fleece left on; used for clothing
- a soft bulky fabric with deep pile; used chiefly for clothing
- outer coat of especially sheep and yaks
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- Verb:
- rip off; ask an unreasonable price
- shear the wool from
Word Origin
- fleece
- fleece: [OE] Fleece comes from a prehistoric Germanic *flūsaz. This probably goes back to an Indo-European *plus-, which also produced Latin plūma ‘down’, later ‘feathers’, and Lithuanian plunksna ‘feather’. The metaphorical sense of the verb, ‘swindle’, developed in the 16th century from the literal ‘remove the fleece from’.=> plume
- fleece (v.)
- 1530s in the literal sense of "to strip (a sheep) of fleece," from fleece (n.). From 1570s in the figurative meaning "to cheat, swindle, strip of money." Related: Fleeced; fleecer; fleecing.
- fleece (n.)
- "wool coat of a sheep," Old English fleos, flies "fleece, wool, fur, sealskin," from West Germanic *flusaz (cognates: Middle Dutch vluus, Dutch vlies, Middle High German vlius, German Vlies), which is of uncertain origin; probably from PIE *pleus- "to pluck," also "a feather, fleece" (cognates: Latin pluma "feather, down," Lithuanian plunksna "feather").
Example
- 1. A new pair of running tights or a cozy fleece will help motivate you to get out for a run .
- 2. Clad in my sloppy flannel pyjamas and fleece dressing gown , I 'm looking again at the ubs booklet and thinking how crisp those lovely shirts look and marvelling at the wisdom of the advice .
- 3. Meanwhile the inner layer of fleece seems appropriate only for snowstorms , and hardly useful in the winters of hong kong , where temperatures rarely fall below 18 degrees celsius .
- 4. Having saturated japan with its signature mix of fleece , synthetic thermal underwear , slender down jackets , low-cost japanese-engineered jeans , and other basics , uniqlo is on a global expansion tear .
- 5. Dressed in his usual attire of jeans , a fleece vest and adidas sandals , mark zuckerberg looks as if he would be more at home stalking the halls of a college dormitory after a late-night coding session than at the helm of the internet 's next multi - billion-dollar company .