FLEECE, noun flees. [Latin vellus, from vello, to pluck or tear off.]

The coat of wool shorn from a sheep at one time.

FLEECE, verb transitive

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.