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Sponge   /spəndʒ/   Listen
noun
Sponge  n.  (Formerly written also spunge)  
1.
(Zool.) Any one of numerous species of Spongiae, or Porifera.
2.
The elastic fibrous skeleton of many species of horny Spongiae (Keratosa), used for many purposes, especially the varieties of the genus Spongia. The most valuable sponges are found in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and on the coasts of Florida and the West Indies.
3.
Fig.: One who lives upon others; a pertinacious and indolent dependent; a parasite; a sponger.
4.
Any spongelike substance. Specifically:
(a)
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.
(b)
Iron from the puddling furnace, in a pasty condition.
(c)
Iron ore, in masses, reduced but not melted or worked.
5.
(Gun.) 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.
6.
(Far.) The extremity, or point, of a horseshoe, answering to the heel.
Bath sponge, any one of several varieties of coarse commercial sponges, especially Spongia equina.
Cup sponge, a toilet sponge growing in a cup-shaped form.
Glass sponge. See Glass-sponge, in the Vocabulary.
Glove sponge, a variety of commercial sponge (Spongia officinalis, variety tubulifera), having very fine fibers, native of Florida, and the West Indies.
Grass sponge, any one of several varieties of coarse commercial sponges having the surface irregularly tufted, as Spongia graminea, and Spongia equina, variety cerebriformis, of Florida and the West Indies.
Horse sponge, a coarse commercial sponge, especially Spongia equina.
Platinum sponge. (Chem.) See under Platinum.
Pyrotechnical sponge, a substance made of mushrooms or fungi, which are boiled in water, dried, and beaten, then put in a strong lye prepared with saltpeter, and again dried in an oven. This makes the black match, or tinder, brought from Germany.
Sheep's-wool sponge, a fine and durable commercial sponge (Spongia equina, variety gossypina) found in Florida and the West Indies. The surface is covered with larger and smaller tufts, having the oscula between them.
Sponge cake, a kind of sweet cake which is light and spongy.
Sponge lead, or Spongy lead (Chem.), metallic lead brought to a spongy form by reduction of lead salts, or by compressing finely divided lead; used in secondary batteries and otherwise.
Sponge tree (Bot.), a tropical leguminous tree (Acacia Farnesiana), with deliciously fragrant flowers, which are used in perfumery.
Toilet sponge, a very fine and superior variety of Mediterranean sponge (Spongia officinalis, variety Mediterranea); called also Turkish sponge.
To set a sponge (Cookery), to leaven a small mass of flour, to be used in leavening a larger quantity.
To throw up the sponge, to give up a contest; to acknowledge defeat; from a custom of the prize ring, the person employed to sponge a pugilist between rounds throwing his sponge in the air in token of defeat; now, throw in the towel is more common, and has the same origin and meaning. (Cant or Slang) "He was too brave a man to throw up the sponge to fate."
Vegetable sponge. (Bot.) See Loof.
Velvet sponge, a fine, soft commercial sponge (Spongia equina, variety meandriniformis) found in Florida and the West Indies.
Vitreous sponge. See Glass-sponge.
Yellow sponge, a common and valuable commercial sponge (Spongia agaricina, variety corlosia) found in Florida and the West Indies.


verb
Sponge  v. t.  (past & past part. sponged; pres. part. sponging)  
1.
To cleanse or wipe with a sponge; as, to sponge a slate or a cannon; to wet with a sponge; as, to sponge cloth.
2.
To wipe out with a sponge, as letters or writing; to efface; to destroy all trace of.
3.
Fig.: To deprive of something by imposition. "How came such multitudes of our nation... to be sponged of their plate and their money?"
4.
Fig.: To get by imposition or mean arts without cost; as, to sponge a breakfast.


Sponge  v. i.  
1.
To suck in, or imbibe, as a sponge.
2.
Fig.: To gain by mean arts, by intrusion, or hanging on; as, an idler sponges on his neighbor. "The fly is an intruder, and a common smell-feast, that sponges upon other people's trenchers."
3.
To be converted, as dough, into a light, spongy mass by the agency of yeast, or leaven.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Sponge" Quotes from Famous Books



... poetical compositions for though he begun a tragedy with great zest, becoming dissatisfied with the style, he obliterated the whole; and his friends saying to him, "What is your Ajax doing?" he answered, "My Ajax has met with a sponge." [236] ...
— The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Complete - To Which Are Added, His Lives Of The Grammarians, Rhetoricians, And Poets • C. Suetonius Tranquillus
... goes to a more artistic old negro, who, with two buckets of water—one like pea-soup, the other as dark as if some of his children had been boiled down in it—and armed with a sponge of most uninviting appearance, applies these liquids with most scientific touch, thereby managing to change the colour, and marble it, darken it, or lighten it, so as to suit the various tastes. This operation completed, and perspiring negroes screwing down frantically, it is forced into ...
— Lands of the Slave and the Free - Cuba, The United States, and Canada • Henry A. Murray
... two later, Winnie walked into Doctor Hugh's office one night a few minutes before ten o'clock, ostensibly to bring him a glass of milk and a sponge cake before he went ...
— Rosemary • Josephine Lawrence
... should be scalded well, and oh, ma, I wonder anyone of us is alive for we're not half clean! The poison pours out of the skin night and day, carbolic acid she said, and every last wan o' us should have a sponge bath at night—that's just to slop yerself all up and down with a rag, and an oliver in the mornin'. Ma, what's an oliver, ...
— Sowing Seeds in Danny • Nellie L. McClung
... thin forest against the horizontal clouds. The three crosses are put on the extreme right of the picture, and its centre is occupied by the executioners, one of whom, standing on a ladder, receives from the other at once the sponge and the tablet with the letters INRI. The Madonna and St. John are on the extreme left, superbly painted, like all the rest, but quite subordinate. In fact, the whole mind of the painter seems to have been set upon making the principals accessary, and the accessaries principal. We look first at ...
— The Stones of Venice, Volume III (of 3) • John Ruskin


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