as in cheated
to rob by the use of trickery or threats
swindlers who use the telephone to fleece senior citizens out of their savings
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of fleeced
Zach Harper basically wrote that Atlanta got fleeced here, though.
—
Chris Branch, New York Times, 8 Jan. 2026
That figure was significantly higher than the comparable number for all of 2024, when Texans were fleeced by a total of $48 million, according to the analysis.
—Trevor Bach, Dallas Morning News, 5 Jan. 2026
So how does a front office this wary of getting fleeced tackle a deadline in which they’re meant to be major players?
—Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune, 2 Jan. 2026
Donovan writes—the perception that men were being fleeced persisted.
—Jennifer Wilson, New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2025
And scores of those victims were fleeced by scammers inside stores owned by Circle K, one of the crypto ATM industry’s biggest corporate partners.
—Curt Devine, CNN Money, 17 Dec. 2025
The mobsters are accused of pocketing some of the $7 million that was fleeced from unsuspecting victims who were drawn to poker tables in Las Vegas, Miami, Manhattan and Long Island’s seaside playground for the rich and famous.
—Preston Fore, Fortune, 25 Oct. 2025
Once the game was underway, the defendants fleeced the victims out of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per game.
—Colin Meyn, The Hill, 24 Oct. 2025
All the trucks that Buck Strickland buys his investors in episode 10 are from Bronco Barry’s car dealership, which fleeced Bobby into buying a horse a few episodes earlier.
—Jake Harris, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 27 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fleeced
Verb
-
Bondi forgave a crime that had put people’s lives at risk and cheated the government of vaccine doses that could have been given to others.—
-
The tension resurfaced when her sister discovered her partner had cheated again and asked to stay at the poster’s home with both children.—
Verb
-
While Marty Supreme is only loosely inspired by Reisman, there are several sequences and character details plucked from his life.—
-
Arsene Wenger was plucked from ‘Japan’, as Sir Alex Ferguson memorably enunciated it, in 1996.—
Verb
-
Mountain View Fire Rescue hustled to get to a fire caused by a power pole that blew down.—
-
My mother—an incredible single mom of four kids—just hustled.—
Verb
-
Tuesday’s loss in Orlando stung a little more for the Miami Heat than the usual December loss during a long 82-game regular season.—
-
But still, some losses have stung harder than others.—
Verb
-
At one point, the fear that squeezed my stomach tighter and tighter gave way to stupefaction.—
-
Even if those increases eventually unwind, the impact will fall on households that have already been squeezed for decades, and many households are no longer assuming prices will fall back—they’ve been burned too often.—
Verb
-
Got screwed when the referee missed an obvious blow to the head that gave the Pats a field goal.—
-
Cameramen everywhere are getting screwed by Hudson Williams’s favorite pose, the double-bird.—
Verb
-
In 2016, it was revealed that a con man had swindled Nicole out of $10 million.—
-
Black residents who got swindled out of land could not turn to the courts.—
Verb
-
But there is a primal scream stuck in our collective throat.—
-
Even after the pick-less Young trade, there does seem to be a pathway present for the Heat to restock with draft picks while, like the Hawks, continually stuck in play-in-ville.—
Cite this Entry
“Fleeced.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fleeced. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
