# sponge
## English
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* enPR: spŭnj, IPA: /spʌnd͡ʒ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ʌndʒ

### Noun

sponge (countable and uncountable, plural sponges)
* (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
* (countable) A piece of porous material used for washing (originally made from the invertebrates, now often made of plastic).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.
* (uncountable) The porous material that synthetic washing sponges are made of.
* (informal) A heavy drinker.
    Synonyms: souse, swill-pot; see also Thesaurus:drunkard
* (countable, uncountable) A type of light cake.
    Synonym: sponge cake
* (countable, uncountable, British) A type of steamed pudding.
    Synonym: sponge pudding
* (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
* 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.
* (countable) A form of contraception that is inserted vaginally; a contraceptive sponge.
* Any sponge-like substance.
** (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.
** Iron from the puddling furnace, in a pasty condition.
** Iron ore, in masses, reduced but not melted or worked.
* 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.
* The extremity, or point, of a horseshoe, corresponding to the heel.
* (slang) A nuclear power plant worker routinely exposed to radiation.

#### Derived terms

* barrel sponge
* breadcrumb sponge
* calcareous sponge
* chewing sponge
* chuck up the sponge
* contraceptive sponge
* coralline sponge
* demosponge
* draw a sponge over the slate
* fun sponge
* glass sponge
* globe sponge
* glove sponge
* honeycomb sponge
* Menger sponge
* menstrual sponge
* pass a sponge over the slate
* platinum sponge
* sea sponge
* set a sponge
* sheepswool sponge
* Sierpinski sponge
* slime sponge
* smoke sponge
* sponge bag
* spongebag pants
* sponge-bag pants
* sponge bath
* sponge-brained
* sponge brush
* sponge cake
* sponge city
* sponge cloth
* sponge construction
* sponge crab
* sponge down
* sponge function
* sponge gourd
* sponge out
* sponge roll
* sponge tax
* sponge toffee
* spongey
* squat sponge
* throw in the sponge
* throw up the sponge
* titanium sponge
* tubular sponge hydroid
* Turkey toilet sponge
* Victoria sponge

#### Descendants

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

#### See also

* foam

### Verb

sponge (third-person singular simple present sponges, present participle sponging or spongeing, simple past and past participle sponged)
* (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[ichard] 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.
* (transitive, intransitive with on or upon) To get by imposition; to scrounge.
    Synonym: blag
** 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] 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
* (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?
* To clean, soak up, or dab with a sponge.
* To suck in, or imbibe, like a sponge.
* To wipe out with a sponge, as letters or writing; to efface; to destroy all trace of.
** 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):Lett the eyes which have looked on Idols, sponge out their unlawfull acts
* (intransitive, baking) To be converted, as dough, into a light, spongy mass by the agency of yeast or leaven.
* (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.

#### Derived terms

* sponge up

#### Translations
### Further reading

* Sponge (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

* pengos, pengős