ppl. a.2 [f. FLEECE sb. + -ED2.] Furnished with a fleece: often preceded by some qualifying word as half-, rich-, well-fleeced.
1580. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. cxiv. 8.
| The mountaines bounded soe, as, fedd in fruitfull ground, | |
| The fleezed Rammes doe frisking bound. |
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. ii. 16.
| As when two rams stird with ambitious pride, | |
| Fight for the rule of the rich fleeced flocke, | |
| Their horned fronts so fierce on either side. |
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 663. That a sow halfe fleeced with woole, was digged up, might I not be thought (thinke you) to catch at clouds.
1698. J. Fryer, A New Account of East-India and Persia, 34. For to eat, Sheep, poor, fleeced rather with Hair than Wool, their Aspect bewraying as much Goat as Sheep.
1724. Swift, Drapier’s Lett., ii. Wks. 1755, V. II. 27. If I were to buy a hundred sheep, and the grazier should bring me one single wether fat and well fleec’d, by way of pattern.
1892. Daily News, 25 June, 5/4. Who is reputed to have owed much of his great wealth to his fleeced flocks.
