sponge
/spʌnd͡ʒ/
sponge noun: any of various marine invertebrates of the phylum Porifera, that have a porous skeleton often of silica.
Noun
sponge (countable and uncountable, plural sponges)
- Any of various marine invertebrates of the phylum Porifera, that have a porous skeleton often of silica.
- Synonyms:
- sea sponge, bath sponge, poriferan, porifer
- A piece of porous material used for washing (originally made from the invertebrates, now often made of plastic).
- 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.1913, Robert Barr, chapter 5, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad
- Synonyms:
- bath sponge
- The porous material that synthetic washing sponges are made of.
- A heavy drinker.
- A type of light cake.
- After six hours of work I got this amazing sponge with fresh strawberries, crème fraîche, crème chantilly, custard, crumble and meringues, something quite rich and outstanding.2021 June 10, Marianna Giusti, “Kean Etro: ‘We basically turned paper into trees’”, in Financial Times, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 Jun 2021
- Synonyms:
- sponge cake
- A type of steamed pudding.
- Synonyms:
- sponge pudding
- 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, bloodsucker, bludger, bummer, free rider, gadfly, leech, mooch, moocher
- A person who readily absorbs ideas.
- 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.2014, Phoeve Hutchison, Are You Listening? Life Is Talking to You!, page 145
- A form of contraception that is inserted vaginally; a contraceptive sponge.
- 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.
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- 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 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.1923, Charles Boardman Hawes, The Dark Frigate, Chapter 6
- The extremity, or point, of a horseshoe, corresponding to the heel.
- A nuclear power plant worker routinely exposed to radiation.
Verb
sponge (third-person singular simple present sponges, present participle sponging, simple past and past participle sponged)
- To take advantage of the kindness of others.
- The fly is an intruder, and a common smell-feast, that spunges upon other Peoples Trenchers.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
- You can’t go on spunging upon the women.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...
- To get by imposition; to scrounge.
- “[…] 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.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
- 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
- Synonyms:
- blag
- To deprive (somebody) of something by imposition.
- How came such multitudes of our nation […] to be sponged of their plate and their money?1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
- To clean, soak up, or dab with a sponge.
- 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.1876, Eliza Bisbee Duffey, Our Behaviour: A Manual of Etiquette and Dress of the Best American Society, Philadelphia
- 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.
- Lett the eyes which have looked on Idols, sponge out their unlawfull acts[1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)
- To be converted, as dough, into a light, spongy mass by the agency of yeast or leaven.
- To use a piece of wild sponge as a tool when foraging for food.
- Why do dolphins sponge instead of foraging in a more "normal" way?2013, Pamela S. Turner, The Dolphins of Shark Bay, page 22
- 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.2015, Hal Whitehead, Luke Rendell, The Cultural Lives of Whales and, page 109
sponge meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
sponge in Hindi
- marine invertebrate
- स्पंज spañj, इस्फ़ंज isfañj, इसपंज ispañj
- piece of porous material used for washing
- स्पंज spañj
sponge in Tamil
- கடற்பஞ்சு, நுரைப்பஞ்சு
sponge in Marathi
- स्पंज, स्पोन्ज, स्पंज करण्यासाठी
sponge in Urdu
- marine invertebrate
- اِسْفَن٘ج isfañj
- piece of porous material used for washing
- سِپَن٘ج sipañj
More languagesFewer languages
- sponge in Bengali
- স্পঞ্জ, শোষক বস্তু
- sponge in Telugu
- స్పాంజి spāñji
- sponge in Malayalam
- നീരൊപ്പുക, മായ്ച്ചുകളയുക, സൂത്രത്തിൽ കൈവശപ്പെടുത്തുക
- sponge in Kannada
- ಹೀರುಗ, ಹೊರಕುಳಿ
- sponge in Punjabi
- ਸਪੰਜ, ਸਪੰਜੀ, ਸਪੰਜ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
- sponge in Gujarati
- ઇસપંજ isapañj, સ્પંજ spañj
- sponge in Odia
- ସ୍ପଞ୍ଜ, ସ୍ପଞ୍ଜ୍, ସ୍ପଞ୍ଜ କରିବା ପାଇଁ
- sponge in Nepali
- स्पन्ज, स्पञ्ज, स्पंज
- sponge in Pashto
- سپنج spanj
- sponge in Tagalog
- espongha
- sponge in Arabic
- إِسْفَنْج ʔisfanj, سَفِنْج safing
- sponge in Malay
- bunga karang, span
- sponge in Indonesian
- bunga karang, spons
- sponge in Thai
- ฟองน้ำ fɔɔng-náam
- sponge in Vietnamese
- bọt biển
Examples of sponge in a sentence
- to sponge a breakfast
- Moreover, the females that do it seem to "sponge" relentlessly throughout the day, hunting more than other females and more than male spongers too.2017, Janet Mann, Deep Thinkers: Inside the Minds of Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises, page 153:
Synonyms of sponge
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of sponge
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | sponges |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | sponges |
| present participle | sponging |
| past participle | sponged |
| past | sponged |
Origin of sponge
From Middle English sponge, from Old English spunge, taken from Latin spongia, from Ancient Greek σπογγιά (spongiá), from σπόγγος (spóngos). Displaced native Old English swamm (“fungus, sponge”).
Words formed from sponge
- 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
- drain sponge
- draw a sponge over the slate
- finger sponge
- fun sponge
- glass sponge
- globe sponge
- glove sponge
- honeycomb sponge
- kitchen 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
- spongebag pants
- sponge-bag pants
- spongebags
- sponge ball
- sponge bath
- sponge bomb
- 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
Phrases with sponge
- sponge up
- sponge out
- sponge tax
- bath sponge
- sponge bags
- sponge roll
- sponge baths
- sponge cakes
- sponge crabs
- sponge downs
- sponge rolls
- sponge stick
55 more phrasesFewer phrases
- sponge taxes
- squat sponge
- sponge cities
- sponge rubber
- sponge toffee
- sponge brushes
- sponge fingers
- sponge pudding
- sponge puddings
- titanium sponge
- urethral sponge
- Victoria sponge
- sponge functions
- Victorian sponge
- threw in the sponge
- threw up the sponge
- throw in the sponge
- throw up the sponge
- chucks up the sponge
- sponge constructions
- thrown in the sponge
- thrown up the sponge
- throws in the sponge
- throws up the sponge
- Turkey toilet sponge
- Victoria sponge cake
- chucked up the sponge
- Victoria sponge cakes
- Victorian sponge cake
- chucking up the sponge
- throwing in the sponge
- throwing up the sponge
- tubular sponge hydroid
- Victorian sponge cakes
- drew a sponge over the slate
- drawn a sponge over the slate
- draws a sponge over the slate
- draw a sponge across the slate
- draw the sponge over the slate
- pass a sponge across the slate
- pass the sponge over the slate
- passed a sponge over the slate
- passes a sponge over the slate
- drawing a sponge over the slate
- passing a sponge over the slate
- draw a wet sponge over the slate
- draw the sponge across the slate
- pass a wet sponge over the slate
- pass the sponge across the slate
- draw a wet sponge across the slate
- draw the wet sponge over the slate
- pass a wet sponge across the slate
- pass the wet sponge over the slate
- draw the wet sponge across the slate
- pass the wet sponge across the slate
Words that rhyme with sponge
Questions about sponge
- What does sponge mean?
- Sponge means any of various marine invertebrates of the phylum Porifera, that have a porous skeleton often of silica.
- What is sponge in Hindi?
- Sponge in Hindi is स्पंज (spañj), इस्फ़ंज (isfañj), इसपंज (ispañj). See Sponge meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use sponge in a sentence?
- to sponge a breakfast
- What part of speech is sponge?
- Sponge can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce sponge?
- Sponge is pronounced /spʌnd͡ʒ/.
- What is the plural of sponge?
- The plural of sponge is sponges.
Words near sponge in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sponge (page history and authors); sponge (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sponge (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sponge (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sponge (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sponge (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sponge (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sponge (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sponge (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-sponge.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sponge.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sponge. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.