Sponge \Sponge\ (sp[u^]nj), n. [OF. esponge, F. ['e]ponge, L.
spongia, Gr. spoggia`, spo`ggos. Cf. Fungus, Spunk.]
[Formerly written also spunge.]
1. (Zool.) Any one of numerous species of Spongiae, or
Porifera. See Illust. and Note under Spongiae.
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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.
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3. Fig.: One who lives upon others; a pertinacious and
indolent dependent; a parasite; a sponger.
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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.
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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.
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6. (Far.) The extremity, or point, of a horseshoe, answering
to the heel.
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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." --Lowell.
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.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Sponge \Sponge\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sponged (sp[u^]njd); p.
pr. & vb. n. Sponging (sp[u^]n"j[i^]ng).]
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.
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2. To wipe out with a sponge, as letters or writing; to
efface; to destroy all trace of. --Hooker.
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3. Fig.: To deprive of something by imposition. "How came
such multitudes of our nation . . . to be sponged of their
plate and their money?" --South.
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4. Fig.: To get by imposition or mean arts without cost; as,
to sponge a breakfast. --Swift.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Sponge \Sponge\, v. i.
1. To suck in, or imbibe, as a sponge.
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2. Fig.: To gain by mean arts, by intrusion, or hanging on;
as, an idler sponges on his neighbor. --E. Eggleston.
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The fly is an intruder, and a common smell-feast,
that sponges upon other people's trenchers.
--L'Estrange.
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3. To be converted, as dough, into a light, spongy mass by
the agency of yeast, or leaven.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
sponge
n 1: a porous mass of interlacing fibers the forms the internal
skeleton of various marine animals and usable to absorb
water or any porous rubber or cellulose product
similarly used
2: someone able to acquire new knowledge and skills rapidly and
easily; "she soaks up foreign languages like a sponge"
[syn: quick study]
3: a follower who hangs around a host (without benefit to the
host) in hope of gain or advantage [syn: leech, parasite,
sponger]
4: primitive multicellular marine animal whose porous body is
supported by a fibrous skeletal framework; usually occurs
in sessile colonies [syn: poriferan, parazoan]
v 1: wipe with a sponge, so as to clean or moisten
2: ask for and get free; be a parasite [syn: mooch, bum, cadge,
grub]
3: erase with a sponge; as of words on a blackboard
4: soak up with a sponge
5: gather sponges, in the ocean
WordNet (r) 2.0
370 Moby Thesaurus words for "sponge":
Ace bandage, Band-Aid, Finnish bath, India rubber, Japanese bath,
Loch Ness monster, Russian bath, Swedish bath, Turkish bath,
ablution, absorb, absorbency, absorbent, absorption, adhesive tape,
adsorb, adsorbent, adsorption, air, air-dry, alevin, anhydrate,
application, asperge, assimilate, assimilation, bake, band,
bandage, bandaging, baptize, barnacle, bath, bathe, batten on,
beat, bedew, benthon, benthos, bespatter, besprinkle, bibber,
binder, bloodsucker, blot, blot out, blot up, blotter, blotting,
blotting paper, boozehound, boozer, bottle sucker, brace, brush,
bubble, bum, burn, butter, cancel, cast, cataplasm, cetacean,
chaff, chemisorb, chemisorption, chemosorb, chemosorption, chip,
cleaning out, cobweb, colander, cold shower, compress, cork,
cotton, court plaster, cravat, cribble, cribriformity, cribrosity,
cross out, crush, cure, dabble, damp, dampen, dash, deadbeat,
dehumidify, dehydrate, dele, delete, dental pulp, desiccate, dew,
digest, digestion, dolphin, douche, douching, down, drain,
dressing, drink, drink in, drink up, drunk, dry, dust, efface,
elastic bandage, elbow bender, elution, elutriation, endosmosis,
enema, engross, engrossment, epithem, eradicator, erase, eraser,
ether, evaporate, exosmosis, expunge, expunger, exsiccate, fairy,
fatten on, feather, feed on, filter in, fingerling, fire, fish,
flue, fluff, flush, flush out, flushing, flushing out, foam,
four-tailed bandage, freeload, freeloader, froth, fry, fuzz,
game fish, gargle, gauze, ginhound, give, gossamer, grilse,
guzzler, hanger-on, hip bath, holystone, honeycomb, hooch hound,
hose, hose down, humect, humectate, humidify, hummum, imbibe,
inebriate, infiltrate, infiltration, insolate, irrigate,
irrigation, kiln, kipper, lather, lathering, launder, lavabo,
lavage, lavation, lave, laving, leech, lint, live off of,
lounge lizard, lush, lusher, man-eater, man-eating shark,
marine animal, mash, minnow, minny, moisten, mop, mop up, mopping,
mopping up, mote, mummify, mush, needle bath, nekton, net,
obliterate, osmose, osmosis, paddle, panfish, paper pulp, parasite,
parch, paste, percolate in, percolation, pith, plankton, plaster,
plaster cast, pledget, plunge bath, porosity, porousness, porpoise,
porridge, poultice, present, pudding, pulp, pulp lead, pulpwood,
rag pulp, raze, riddle, rinse, rinse out, rinsing,
ritually immerse, roller, roller bandage, rub, rub out, rubber,
rubber bandage, rule out, rum hound, rummy, salmon, sauce, sauna,
sauna bath, scorch, scour, scouring, scratch, scratch out, screen,
scrub, scrub up, scrubbing, scrubbing up, sea monster, sea pig,
sea serpent, sea snake, sear, seep in, seepage, shampoo, shark,
shower, shower bath, shrivel, sieve, sievelikeness, sitz bath,
sling, slobber, slop, slosh, sluice, sluice out, slurp up, smash,
smell-feast, smoke, smolt, soak, soak in, soak up, soap, soaping,
sorb, sorption, sot, souse, sparge, spatter, spiv, splash,
splatter, splint, sponge bath, sponge on, sponge out, sponger,
sponging, spray, sprinkle, spume, squash, stew, strainer, straw,
strike out, stupe, sucker, sulfate pulp, sulfite pulp, sun,
sun-dry, swab, swabbing, swash, sweat bath, swill up, swillbelly,
swillbowl, swillpot, syringe, take in, take up, tampon, tape, tent,
thistledown, tippler, toivel, torrefy, tourniquet, towel,
triangular bandage, tropical fish, tub, wash, wash out, wash up,
washing, washing up, washout, washup, water, weazen, wet, wet down,
whale, whirlpool bath, white lead, wino, wipe, wipe out, wiping up,
wither, wizen, wood pulp
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
sponge n. [Unix] A special case of a filter that reads its entire
input before writing any output; the canonical example is a sort
utility. Unlike most filters, a sponge can conveniently overwrite the
input file with the output data stream. If a file system has versioning
(as ITS did and VMS does now) the sponge/filter distinction loses its
usefulness, because directing filter output would just write a new
version. See also slurp.
Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)
sponge
A special case of a Unix filter that reads its entire
input before writing any output; the canonical example is a
sort utility. Unlike most filters, a sponge can conveniently
overwrite the input file with the output data stream. If a
file system has file versioning (as ITS did and VMS does
now) the sponge/filter distinction loses its usefulness,
because directing filter output would just write a new
version.
See also slurp.
[{Jargon File]
(1995-01-18)
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)
Sponge
occurs only in the narrative of the crucifixion (Matt. 27:48;
Mark 15:36; John 19:29). It is ranked as a zoophyte. It is found
attached to rocks at the bottom of the sea.
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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