sponge
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: baking
cooking
food
lifestyle
Etymology: From Middle English sponge, from Old English spunge, taken from Latin spongia, from Ancient Greek σπογγιά (spongiá), from σπόγγος (spóngos).
Inflected forms:
form: sponges
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: sponges
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: sponging
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: sponged
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: sponged
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: Any of various marine invertebrates of the phylum Porifera, that have a porous skeleton often of silica.
pos: noun
tags: countable
gloss: A piece of porous material used for washing (originally made from the invertebrates, now often made of plastic).
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: 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.
gloss: The porous material that synthetic washing sponges are made of.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
gloss: A heavy drinker.
pos: noun
tags: countable
informal
uncountable
gloss: A type of light cake.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A type of steamed pudding.
pos: noun
tags: UK
countable
uncountable
gloss: 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).
pos: noun
tags: countable
slang
uncountable
gloss: A person who readily absorbs ideas.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: 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.
gloss: A form of contraception that is inserted vaginally; a contraceptive sponge.
pos: noun
tags: countable
gloss: Any sponge-like substance.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Any sponge-like substance.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Any sponge-like substance.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: The great guns ranged along the deck — each bound fast by its new breechings — with their linstocks and sponges and ladles and rammers, made no idle show of warlike strength.
gloss: The extremity, or point, of a horseshoe, corresponding to the heel.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A nuclear power plant worker routinely exposed to radiation.
pos: noun
tags: countable
slang
uncountable
gloss: To take advantage of the kindness of others.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
slang
examples: The fly is an intruder, and a common smell-feast, that spunges upon other Peoples Trenchers.
You can’t go on spunging upon the women.
He has been sponging off his friends for a month now.
gloss: To get by imposition; to scrounge.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: “[…] 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
gloss: To deprive (somebody) of something by imposition.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: How came such multitudes of our nation […] to be sponged of their plate and their money?
gloss: To clean, soak up, or dab with a sponge.
pos: verb
examples: Before stepping into the bath the head should be wet with cold water, and in the bath the pit of the stomach should first be sponged.
gloss: To suck in, or imbibe, like a sponge.
pos: verb
gloss: To wipe out with a sponge, as letters or writing; to efface; to destroy all trace of.
pos: verb
examples: Lett the eyes which have looked on Idols, sponge out their unlawfull acts
gloss: To be converted, as dough, into a light, spongy mass by the agency of yeast or leaven.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: To use a piece of wild sponge as a tool when foraging for food.
pos: verb
examples: Why do dolphins sponge instead of foraging in a more "normal" way?
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.
Moreover, the females that do it seem to "sponge" relentlessly throughout the day, hunting more than other females and more than male spongers too.
Related words: foam
Derived words: African net sponge
bacteriosponge
barrel sponge
breadcrumb sponge
bullet sponge
calcareous sponge
calcisponge
chewing sponge
chuck up the sponge
contraceptive sponge
coralline sponge
cyanosponge
cytosponge
demosponge
disponge
draw a sponge over the slate
fun sponge
glass sponge
globe sponge
glove sponge
honeycomb sponge
lyre sponge
Menger sponge
menstrual sponge
microsponge
nanosponge
pass a sponge over the slate
platinum sponge
sclerosponge
sea sponge
set a sponge
sheepswool sponge
Sierpinski sponge
slime sponge
smoke sponge
sponge bag
sponge-bag pants
spongebag pants
spongebags
sponge bath
sponge-brained
sponge brush
sponge cake
spongecase
sponge city
sponge cloth
sponge construction
sponge crab
sponge down
sponge finger
spongeful
sponge function
sponge gourd
spongeless
spongelet
spongelike
sponge out
sponge roll
sponge tax
sponge toffee
spongeware
spongework
spongeworthy
spongey
spongicolous
spongin
spongivore
spongoblast
spongoid
spongy
squat sponge
throw in the sponge
throw up the sponge
titanium sponge
tubular sponge hydroid
Turkey toilet sponge
urethral sponge
Victoria sponge
responge
spongeable
sponge up
unsponged
Translations:
lang: Asturian
word: esponxa
lang: Catalan
word: esponja
lang: Czech
word: houba
lang: Finnish
word: sieni
lang: Galician
word: esponxa
lang: Greek
word: σφουγγάρι
roman: sfoungári
lang: Hungarian
word: szivacsanyag
lang: Macedonian
word: су́нѓер
roman: súnǵer
lang: Pashto
word: سپنج
roman: spanj
lang: Russian
word: гу́бка
roman: gúbka
lang: Turkish
word: sünger
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: سونگر
roman: sünger
lang: Czech
word: houba
lang: Finnish
word: sieni