Bible dictionaries
Fleece
What Bible dictionaries say about “Fleece”, one article after the other.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
Fleece - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)
The wool of a sheep, whether shorn off or still attached to the skin (Deut. 18:4; Job 31:20). The miracle of Gideon's fleece (Judg. 6:37-40) consisted in the dew having fallen at one time on the fleece without any on the floor, and at another time in the fleece remaining dry while the ground was wet with dew.
Fleece - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)
FLEECE, n. flees. [L. vellus, from vello, to pluck or tear off.]
The coat of wool shorn from a sheep at one time.
FLEECE, v.t.
1. To shear off a covering or growth of wool.
2. To strip of money or property; to take from, by severe exactions, under color of law or justice, or pretext of necessity, or by virtue of authority. Arbitrary princes fleece their subjects; and clients complain that they are sometimes fleeced by their lawyers.
This word is rarely or never used for plundering in war by a licentious soldiery; but is properly used to express a stripping by contributions levied on a conquered people.
3. To spread over as with wool; to make white.
Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)
The article in Easton + Webster 1828International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE 1915)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2
The article in ISBE 1915