FLEECING

Verb

fleecing

present participle of fleece

Noun

fleecing (plural fleecings)

A confidence trick.

Source: Wiktionary

FLEECE

Fleece, n. Etym: [OE. flees, AS. fleós; akin to D. flies, vlies .]

1. The entire coat of wood that covers a sheep or other similar animal; also, the quantity shorn from a sheep, or animal, at one time. Who shore me Like a tame wether, all my precious fleece. Milton.

2. Any soft woolly covering resembling a fleece.

3. (Manuf.)

Definition: The fine web of cotton or wool removed by the doffing knife from the cylinder of a carding machine. Fleece wool, wool shorn from the sheep.

– Golden fleece. See under Golden.

Fleece, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fleeced; p. pr. & vb. n. Fleecing.]

1. To deprive of a fleece, or natural covering of wool.

2. To strip of money or other property unjustly, especially by trickery or frand; to bring to straits by oppressions and exactions. Whilst pope and prince shared the wool betwixt them, the people were finely fleeced. Fuller.

3. To spread over as with wool. [R.] Thomson.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition