Word.ws English Dictionary

spongebags

spongebags noun: formal trousers. Also the plural of spongebag.

Noun

spongebags pl (plural only, attributive spongebag)

  1. (UK, plural, plural-only, slang) Formal trousers.
    • For festive occasions, the waistcoat and gloves can be grey, buff or patterned - a grey top-hat is usually worn in preference to black and spongebags can be worn instead of striped trousers.1967, Mary Bosticco, Etiquette for the businessman at home and abroad, page 7

Also used as

spongebags is also the plural of spongebag.

Synonyms of spongebags

Forms of spongebags

attributivespongebag

Origin of spongebags

From sponge + bags.

Questions about spongebags

What does spongebags mean?
Spongebags means formal trousers.
What part of speech is spongebags?
Spongebags is a noun.

Words near spongebags in the dictionary

  1. sponge-brained
  2. spongeable
  3. spongebag
  4. spongebag pants
  5. spongebag trousers
  6. spongebags
  7. spongecake
  8. spongecakes
  9. spongecase
  10. sponged
  11. sponged down

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spongebags (page history and authors). 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-au-spongebags.ogg.

Cite this entry: “spongebags.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spongebags. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.