FLEECE, n. flees. L. vellus, from vello, to pluck or tear off.
The coat of wool shorn from a sheep at one time.
FLEECE,
1. To shear off a covering or growth of wool.
2. To strip of money or property to take from, by severe exactions, under color of law or justice, or pretext of necessity, or by virtue of authority. Arbitrary princes fleece their subjects and clients complain that they are sometimes fleeced by their lawyers.
This word is rarely or never used for plundering in war by a licentious soldiery but is properly used to express a stripping by contributions levied on a conquered people.
3. To spread over as with wool to make white.