sponge

From Middle English sponge, from Old English spunge, taken from Latin spongia, from Ancient Greek σπογγιά (spongiá), from σπόγγος (spóngos).

• enPR: spŭnj, IPA^(key): /spʌnd͡ʒ/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ʌndʒ

sponge (countable and uncountable, plural sponges)

1. (countable) Any of various marine invertebrates of the phylum Porifera, that have a porous skeleton often of silica.

   Synonyms: sea sponge, bath sponge, poriferan, porifer

2. (countable) A piece of porous material used for washing (originally made from the invertebrates, now often made of plastic).

   Synonym: bath sponge

   • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 5, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎:

     She removed Stranleigh’s coat with a dexterity that aroused his imagination. The elder woman returned with dressings and a sponge, which she placed on a chair.

3. (uncountable) The porous material that synthetic washing sponges are made of.
4. (informal) A heavy drinker.

   Synonyms: souse, swill-pot; see also Thesaurus:drunkard

5. (countable, uncountable) A type of light cake.

   Synonym: sponge cake

6. (countable, uncountable, British) A type of steamed pudding.

   Synonym: sponge pudding

7. (slang) A person who takes advantage of the generosity of others (abstractly imagined to absorb or soak up the money or efforts of others like a sponge).

   Synonyms: freeloader, sponger; see also Thesaurus:scrounger

8. A person who readily absorbs ideas.
   • 2014, Phoeve Hutchison, Are You Listening? Life Is Talking to You!, page 145:

     For this reason, we need to think of our children as sponges of information and watch their sources carefully. We also need to always model appropriate behaviour, as we are a constant source of new information.

9. (countable) A form of contraception that is inserted vaginally; a contraceptive sponge.
10. Any sponge-like substance.
    1. (baking) Dough before it is kneaded and formed into loaves, and after it is converted into a light, spongy mass by the agency of the yeast or leaven.
    2. Iron from the puddling furnace, in a pasty condition.
    3. Iron ore, in masses, reduced but not melted or worked.
11. A mop for cleaning the bore of a cannon after a discharge. It consists of a cylinder of wood, covered with sheepskin with the wool on, or cloth with a heavy looped nap, and having a handle, or staff.
12. The extremity, or point, of a horseshoe, corresponding to the heel.
13. (slang) A nuclear power plant worker routinely exposed to radiation.

• → Hindi: स्पंज (spañj)
• → Japanese: スポンジ (suponji)
• → Korean: 스펀지 (seupeonji)
• → Pashto: سپنج (spanj)
• → Welsh: spynj
• → Malay: span

• foam

sponge (third-person singular simple present sponges, present participle sponging or spongeing, simple past and past participle sponged)

1. (intransitive, slang) To take advantage of the kindness of others.
   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: , London: R Sare, , →OCLC:

     The fly is an intruder, and a common smell-feast, that spunges upon other Peoples Trenchers.

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 32, in The History of Pendennis. , volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     You can’t go on spunging upon the women.

   He has been sponging off his friends for a month now.

2. (transitive, intransitive with on or upon) To get by imposition; to scrounge.

   Synonym: blag

   • 1918, W B Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     “ […] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.

   • July 17 1735, Jonathan Swift, letter to Lord Ornery

     I am an utter stranger to the persons and places, except when half a score come to sponge on me every Sunday evening

   to sponge a breakfast

3. (transitive) To deprive (somebody) of something by imposition.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:

     How came such multitudes of our nation […] to be sponged of their plate and their money?

4. To clean, soak up, or dab with a sponge.
5. To suck in, or imbibe, like a sponge.
6. To wipe out with a sponge, as letters or writing; to efface; to destroy all trace of.
   • 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J S, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, , London: Will Stansby , published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     Lett the eyes which have looked on Idols, sponge out their unlawfull acts

7. (intransitive, baking) To be converted, as dough, into a light, spongy mass by the agency of yeast or leaven.
8. (marine biology, of dolphins) To use a piece of wild sponge as a tool when foraging for food.
   • 2013, Pamela S. Turner, The Dolphins of Shark Bay, page 22:

     Why do dolphins sponge instead of foraging in a more "normal" way?

   • 2015, Hal Whitehead, Luke Rendell, The Cultural Lives of Whales and, page 109:

     Sponging is worth thinking about in some detail because it illustrates many of the challenges and sources of controversy in studying social learning and culture in wild cetaceans.

   • 2017, Janet Mann, Deep Thinkers: Inside the Minds of Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises, page 153:

     Moreover, the females that do it seem to "sponge" relentlessly throughout the day, hunting more than other females and more than male spongers too.

• sponge up

• Sponge (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• pengos, pengős