different between despoil vs fleece

English

Etymology

From Middle English despoylen, dispoylen, from Old French despoillier ( > French dépouiller), from Latin d?spoli?, d?spoli?re.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??sp??l/
• Rhymes: -??l

Verb

despoil (third-person singular simple present despoils, present participle despoiling, simple past and past participle despoiled)

1. (transitive) To plunder; to pillage; take spoil from.
   • 1849, Thomas Macaulay, History of England, Chapter 20:

     a law which restored to them an immense domain of which they had been despoiled

   • 1859, George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, Chapter 5:

     Ripton was familiar with the rod, a monster much despoiled of his terrors by intimacy.

   • 2010, The Economist, 17 July, p.53:

     To dreamers in the West, Tibet is a Shangri-La despoiled by Chinese ruthlessness and rapacity.

2. (transitive) To violently strip (someone), with indirect object of their possessions etc.; to rob.
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 9, 410-11:

     To intercept thy way, or send thee back / Despoiled of innocence, of faith, of bliss.

   • 1849, Thomas Macaulay, History of England, Chapter 20:

     A law which restored to them an immense domain of which they had been despoiled.

3. (obsolete, transitive or reflexive) To strip (someone) of their clothes; to undress.

Related terms

• despoiler
• despoilment
• despoliation
• spoliate
• spoliation

Translations

Noun

despoil (plural despoils)

1. (obsolete) Plunder; spoliation.

References

• despoil in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• despoil in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• diploes, diploës, dipoles, elopids, peloids, soliped, spoiled

English

Etymology

From Middle English flees, flese, flus, fleos, from Old English fl?os, fl?es, fl?s, from Proto-West Germanic *fleus.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /fli?s/
• Rhymes: -i?s

Noun

fleece (countable and uncountable, plural fleeces)

1. (uncountable) Hair or wool of a sheep or similar animal
2. (uncountable) Insulating skin with the wool attached
3. (countable) A textile similar to velvet, but with a longer pile that gives it a softness and a higher sheen.
4. (countable) An insulating wooly jacket
5. (roofing) Mat or felts composed of fibers, sometimes used as a membrane backer.
6. Any soft woolly covering resembling a fleece.
7. The fine web of cotton or wool removed by the doffing knife from the cylinder of a carding machine.

Derived terms

• fleeceless
• fleecewear
• fleece wool
• fleecy
• Golden Fleece

Translations

Verb

fleece (third-person singular simple present fleeces, present participle fleecing, simple past and past participle fleeced)

1. (transitive) To con or trick (someone) out of money.
2. (transitive) To shear the fleece from (a sheep or other animal).

3. (transitive) To cover with, or as if with, wool.

Translations

See also

• (con): nickel and dime

Finnish

Etymology

Borrowed from English fleece.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fli?si/, [?fli?s?i]
• IPA^(key): /?fli?s/, [?fli?s?] (often in compound terms)

Noun

fleece

1. Alternative spelling of fliisi

Usage notes

• As is the case with many loanwords, the inflection of this term is problematic. Kotus recommends "nalle" - category in writing, as shown above, but in speech the declension usually follows "risti" -category, see the declension table for fliisi.

Declension