Forms: 1 fléos, flíes, flýs, 3 fleos, 4–6 flies, flyes, 4–6 flees, fles(e, (4 flus, 5 fleese, fleys, flesse, 6 fleise), 5–6 Sc. fleis(s, 6 flece, Sc. flesche, 7 fliece, Sc. fleesh, 6– fleece. [Com. WGer. OE. fléos neut., corresponds to Du. vlies, MHG. vlies (Ger. fliesz, vliesz); there is also a form with umlaut, OE. flíes, flýs = MHG. vlius (Ger. fleusz, flüsz); the two types represent WGer. *fleusoz-, fliusiz-; an ablaut variant *flûso-z appears in MLG. and MHG. vlûs sheepskin, mod. Ger. flaus masc. woollen coat. Connection with the root of L. plūma feather, PLUME, is probable.]
1. The woolly covering of a sheep or similar animal.
a. 1000. Laws Ina, c. 69. Sceap sceal gongan mid his fliese oð midne sumor.
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. lxxii. 6. And [he] astaȝ swe swe regn in fleos.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 66. Monie cumeð to ou ischrud mid lombes fleose, & beoð wode wulues.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter, lxxii. 6. He sal com down als rain in flees soft.
1382. Wyclif, Gen. xxx. 35. Al þe flok of o colour, þat is, of whyet or of blak flese.
c. 1450. Holland, Howlat, 750.
| Now, lady, luke to the leid that the so leile lufis, | |
| Thow seker trone of Salamon, | |
| Thow worthy wand of Aaron, | |
| Thow joyuss fleiss of Gedion, | |
| We help the behufis. |
1501. Douglas, Pal. Hon., III. xxxvi.
| To win the fleis of gold tho’ saw I sent, | |
| Of Grece the nobillis with Jason consequent. |
1508. Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 422.
| Quhen that I go to the kirk, cled in cair weidis, | |
| As foxe in a lambis fleise fenȝe I my cheir. |
1563. Winȝet, trans. Vincent. Lirin., xxxi. Wks. 1890, II. 65. Maid as certane fleisis of wow, to that immaculat Lambis behalf, quha takis away the sinnis of warld?
1637. T. Morton, New Eng. Canaan, II. x. 98. These beasts are of the bignesse of a Cowe, their Flesh being very good foode, their hides good lether, their fleeces very usefull, being a kinde of wolle, as fine almost as the wolle of the Beaver, and the Salvages doe make garments thereof.
1725. Pope, Odyss., I. 557.
| Stretch’d on the downy fleece, no rest he knows, | |
| And in his raptur’d soul the vision glows. |
1804. J. Grahame, The Sabbath, 455.
| Of some far distant country still call’d home, | |
| Where lambs of whitest fleece sport on the hills. |
1877. Simmonds, Anim. Products, 66. Its [the Alpaca’s] fleece is superior to that of the sheep in length and softness, averaging 7 to 9 inches, and sometimes it is procured of an extraordinary length.
b. Her. The figure of a sheepskin with its wool suspended by a ring. c. Order of the Golden Fleece: an order of knighthood instituted at Bruges in 1430 by Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy.
The right of investiture in the order of the Golden Fleece now belongs to the sovereigns of Austria and Spain.
1525. Two Proph. Eng., in Furniv., Ballads from MSS., I. 316. A King to were a flemyshe flese, all Sacksons shall hyt Rewe.
1539. Inv. Habiliments, etc., Jas. V. Scot. (1815), 49. Item the ordoure of the Empriour with the goldin fleis.
1548. Hall, Chron., Edw. IV., 213. Eche beyng compaignion of others order: for the kyng ware the golden Flees, and the duke ware the Garter.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., IV. vii. 69. Knight of the Noble Order of S. George, Worthy S. Michael, and the Golden Fleece.
1842. Longf., Belfry Bruges, 21.
| I beheld the pageants splendid that adorned those days of old; | |
| Stately dames, like queens attended, knights who bore the Fleece of Gold. |
1849. Disraeli, Corr. w. Sister, 11 March (1886), 220. He [Guizot] had his red ribbon on and also his golden fleece…. It was tolerably bold and cool to wear the fleece.
2. The quantity of wool shorn from a sheep at one time.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., xii. (1885), 140. The ixth fflese off thair wolles, and also the ixth shefe off þer graynes.
1672. Petty, Pol. Anat. (1691), 54. A Fleece of Wool in Ireland is about 2 l. weight.
1782. Burns, Poor Mailie’s Elegy, vi.
| A bonier fleesh ne’er cross’d the clips | |
| Than Mailie dead. |
1829. Scott, Anne of G., vi. Thou shall have a necklace of jet at next shearing-feast, if our fleeces bear any price in the market.
1868. Rogers, Pol. Econ., xii. (1876), 159. The average weight of a fleece was not more than two pounds.
† b. fig. A share of booty. Obs.
In quot. 1703 fleece is apprehended as ‘act of fleecing.’
1601. Holland, Livy, VI. xv. (1609), 226. Thy selfe wouldest have a fliece with them [in parte prædæ sis].
1603. Breton, Packet Lett., II. xxxix. (Grosart), II. 43. Fickle heads and vnbrideled wills know not where or how to bestow themselues, when their wits goe a wool-gathering among shrewes that haue had fleeces, they may be kinde, but not constant, and Loue loues no out-lookers.
1703. Mrs. Centlivre, Beau’s Duel, II. ii. There’s scarce a Match-maker in the whole Town, but has had a fleece at his Purse; nor scarce a great Fortune in Town, but he’ll tell you has receiv’d his Addresses.
3. In various transferred uses.
† a. A coating periodically shed or removed.
1603. G. Owen, Pembrokeshire (1891), 74. The stonne Marle beinge a kynde of stonne digged out of a Quarrey, and beinge cast on the lande, casteth yerely a ffleece of sande, which in proces of tyme doth soe amende the grounde that neither the Lyme nor the Claye marle goeth beyonde it, and carieth Corne and grasse in great aboundance.
b. A crop of vegetation; also fig.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol., 80.
| So thik the plantis sprang in euery pece, | |
| The feyldis ferleis of thar fructuus flece. |
1793. Trans. Soc. Encourag. Arts (ed. 2), V. 86. The land which has been sown broad-cast with common weeding only, will produce little else but a fleece of weeds.
1793. Ann. Agric. Suff., XIX. 214. There was a very fine fleece of marl grass (trifolium alpestre).
1831. Scott, Jrnl., 5 May. A fleece of letters, which must be answered, I suppose—all from persons, my zealous admirers, of course, and expecting a degree of generosity, which will put to rights all their maladies, physical and mental; and expecting that I can put to rights whatever losses have been their lot, raise them to a desirable rank, and [stand] their protector and patron.
1855. Browning, Two in Campagna, V.
| The champaign with its endless fleece | |
| Of feathery grasses everywhere! |
c. A ‘head’ or mass of hair.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., IV. (1586), 175 b. Others [Bees] cary water with their mouths, and droppes in their little fleeses.
1600. S. Nicholson, Acolastus, E ij b.
| Fondling I am no God, nor tempting fiend, | |
| Nor yet the woman that could wish thee dead; | |
| Know me for Eubulus thy auncient friend, | |
| Witnesse this snow-white fleece vpon my head. |
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonnet lxviii.
| Before the goulden tresses of the dead, | |
| The right of sepulchers, were shorne away, | |
| To liue a scond life on second head, | |
| Ere beauties dead fleece made another gay. |
1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4841/4. Stolen … a Mare … with a white Fleece down the Face.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., I. v. ‘Miserable indeed,’ says he, ‘was the condition of the Aboriginal Savage, glaring fiercely from under his fleece of hair, which with the beard reached down to his loins, and hung round him like a matted cloak.’
1859. Tennyson, Vivien, 837.
| He spoke in words part heard, in whispers part, | |
| Half-suffocated in the hoary fell | |
| And many-winter’d fleece of throat and chin. |
1865. Swinburne, Poems & Ball., Faustine, 1.
| Lean back, and get some minutes’ peace; | |
| Let your head lean | |
| Back to the shoulder with its fleece | |
| Of locks, Faustine. |
d. Applied to anything resembling a sheep’s fleece either in appearance or consistence; a white cloud, etc.; a quantity of falling snow, or of some light substance, as air, vapor, etc.
1671. R. Bohun, Disc. Wind, 40. Superincumbent Air; which I suppose to ly in severall fleeces, or storys one above another.
1685. Goad, Celest. Bodies, I. ii. 4. Whensoever it snows, the Air remits of his rigor; and again, the greater is the Fleece, the warmer is the Air, and more bordering on a Thaw.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., i. 7. They explain’d the Phænomena of Vision, Imagination, and Thought it self, by certain thin fleeces of Atoms, that flow incessantly from the surfaces of Bodies.
1715–20. Pope, Iliad, III. 283.
| But, when he [Ulysses] speaks, what elocution flows! | |
| Soft as the fleeces of descending snows, | |
| The copious accents fall, with easy art; | |
| Melting they fall, and sink into the heart! | |
| Ibid. (1728), The Dunciad, II. 363. | |
| Till show’rs of Sermons, Characters, Essays, | |
| In circling fleeces whiten all the ways. |
1746–7. Hervey, Medit. (1818), 80. The grayness of the dawn decays gradually. Abundance of ruddy streaks tinge the fleeces of the firmament, till at length the dappled aspect of the east is lost in one ardent and boundless blush.
1834. H. Miller, Scenes & Leg., xi. (1876), 169. The waters of the lake began to heave and swell, and a deep fleece of vapour, that rose from the surface like an exhalation, to spread over the face of the heavens.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxix. (1856), 246. It [the meteor] resembled the mackerel fleeces and mare’s tails of our summer skies at home.
1865. Masson, Rec. Brit. Philos., iii. 229. Speculation dares to go with her mathematics beyond the bounds of the solar system itself, and, though professing to grope here in a region the possibilities of which transcend her accustomed grasp and make it falter and tremble, yet sees no other end but that all the immeasurable entanglement of all the starry systems shall also run itself together at last in an indistinguishable equilibrium of ruin, as beads or fleeces of oily substance hung in some gauze-work would trickle together in burning tears at the touch of fire, and be consumed in a steam.
e. spec. The thin sheet of cotton or wool fiber that is taken from the breaking-card. Also, a textile fabric with a soft silky pile used for lining, etc.: cf. fleece-lined in 6.
1853. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 510. One [card], called a breaker, which turns off the cotton in a broad fleece of extreme thinness.
1878. I. Watts in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), VI. 493. The cotton is taken from the doffer in a very light fleece by means of a vibrating comb, and this fleece is drawn together into a funnel which forms it into a narrow web.
4. Used for a sheep, or collect. sheep.
1798. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Tales of Hoy, Wks. 1812, IV. 427.
| He dares th’ opposing hedge, he beats it hollow, | |
| Mounts, leaps, and all the tribe of fleeces follow. |
a. 1800[?]. Wowing of Jock & Jenny, viii., in Pinkerton, Select Sc. Ballads (1783), II. 73. Fyve hundirth fleis now in a flok.
1855. Browning, Love among Ruins, ix.
| The quiet-colored eve | |
| Smiles to leave | |
| To their folding, all our many-tinkling fleece | |
| In such peace. |
5. U.S. The meat taken from the sides of the hump of the American bison.
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind. (1844), II. liv. 181. The fleece (hump) of a fat cow, was the luxury of luxuries; and for it we would step ashore, or as often level our rifles upon the ‘slickest’ of the herds [of buffalo] from our canoe, as they were grazing upon the banks.
1891. Army & Navy Jrnl. (N.Y.), 5 Sept., 30/1. The fleece [of a buffalo] is the meat lying on each side of the hump ribs and resting on the outside of the side ribs.
6. Comb., as fleece-encumbered, -like, -lined adjs. Also † fleece-feeder, one who makes his profit out of fleeces (in quot. fig.); fleece-merchant, a dealer in wool; fleece-wool, that obtained from the living animal at the annual shearings.
1814. Wordsw., Excursion, VII. 612.
| Sad thoughts, avaunt!—the fervour of the year, | |
| Poured on the *fleece-encumbered flock. |
1549. Latimer, 5th Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (Arb.), 136. There are to many suche *flese feders.
a. 1729. Congreve, Impossible Thing, 127.
| With Awe He now takes from her Hand | |
| That *Fleece-like-Flow’r of Fairy Land: | |
| And to Pug issues his Command. |
1820. Shelley, Cloud, 45.
| That orbèd maiden with white fire laden, | |
| Whom mortals call the moon, | |
| Glides glimmering o’er my fleece-like floor, | |
| By the midnight breezes strewn. |
1894. Daily News, 26 March, 5/7. With the exception of *fleece-lined underwear.
a. 1774. Fergusson, Iron Kirk Bell, Poems (1845), 43.
| *Fleece merchants may look bauld, I trow, | |
| Sin’ a’ Auld Reikie’s childer now | |
| Maun stap their lugs wi’ teats o’ woo. |
1495. Nottingham Rec., III. 42. Centum stones de *flesse wolle.
1552. Act 5–6 Edw. VI., c. 6 § 1. Mingling Fell-wool and Lambs-wool … with Fleece-wool.
1769. De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit., I. 94. The Article of Wool is of several Sorts; but principally Fleece Wool, out of Lincolnshire, where the longest Staple is found, the Sheep of those Parts being of the largest Breed.
