fleeced
/fliːst/
adjective
Origin
Proto-Germanic
*fleusą — fleece or covering of wool
Overview
Meaning Now
- Having a fleece, or being covered in a woolly or fleece-like substance.
- Cheated or swindled out of money or possessions.
Literal older meaning
covered in the woolly coat of a sheep
Language path
Proto-Germanic → Old English → English
Earliest form
flīse
Earliest period
Old English
Journey
The metaphorical sense of 'to fleece' meaning to swindle someone derives from the literal act of shearing a sheep, where the animal is stripped of its valuable wool coat, leaving it bare. By the 16th century, the term was widely used to describe financial exploitation.
Evolution
- Proto-Germanic
*fleusą
“fleece”
- Old English
flīes
“fleece”
- Middle English
fles
“the wool coat of a sheep”
- Early Modern English
fleece
“to shear or to swindle”
Metaphorical sense emerges from the act of shearing a sheep completely.
Connections
Word parts
fleece
root
wool coat of an animal
-ed
suffix
past participle or adjectival marker
Related across languages
Old High German
flius
fleece
Dutch
vlies
fleece
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Related to fleeced
External references use DefinedTerm semantics.