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sponge

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The definition of a sponge is a sea animal that has a skeleton and a porous surface, or an absorbent piece used for washing, or a pad of gauze used in medicine.

(noun)

An example of a sponge is a bright red tree sponge.
An example of a sponge is what people use to clean the counters.
An example of a sponge is what a doctor uses in surgery to clean a wound.

Sponge is defined as to clean or absorb liquid with a soft, porous tool, or to get something without paying.

(verb)

An example of sponge is to clean up spilled milk.
An example of sponge is to live with a friend without paying for rent or food.

See sponge in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

any of a phylum (Porifera) of simple, aquatic, sessile animals having a porous structure and a tough, often siliceous or calcareous, skeleton
the elastic skeleton, or a piece of the skeleton, of certain sponges, light in weight and highly absorbent, used for washing surfaces, in bathing, etc.
any substance like this; specif.,
1. a piece of spongy plastic, cellulose, rubber, etc., used like natural sponge
2. a pad of gauze or cotton, as used in surgery
3. a light dessert made of whipped gelatin and beaten egg whites or whipped cream
4. raised dough, as for bread
5. any of several metals, as platinum, found in a porous mass
1. a person having a spongelike capacity, as for drink, knowledge, etc.
2. Informal sponger (sense )

Origin: ME < OE < L spongia < Gr spongia, spongos

transitive verb sponged, sponging

to use a sponge on so as to dampen, wipe clean, etc.
to remove or obliterate with or as with a damp sponge: usually with out, off, away, etc.
to absorb with, as with, or like a sponge: often with up
Informal to get without cost, as by begging, imposition, etc.

Origin: ME spongen < spongethe

intransitive verb

to gather sponges from the sea
to take up liquid like a sponge
Informal to be a sponger (sense ): often with off or on

See sponge in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

a. Any of numerous aquatic, chiefly marine invertebrate animals of the phylum Porifera, characteristically having a porous skeleton composed of fibrous material or siliceous or calcareous spicules and often forming irregularly shaped colonies attached to an underwater surface.
b. The light, fibrous, flexible, absorbent skeleton of certain of these organisms, used for bathing, cleaning, and other purposes.
a. Porous plastics, rubber, cellulose, or other material, similar in absorbency to this skeleton and used for the same purposes.
b. Metal in a porous, brittle form, as after the removal of other metals in processing, used as a raw material in manufacturing.
A gauze pad used to absorb blood and other fluids, as in surgery or the dressing of a wound.
A small absorbent contraceptive pad that contains a spermicide and is placed against the cervix of the uterus before sexual intercourse.
Dough that has been or is being leavened.
A light cake, such as sponge cake.
A sponge bath.
One who habitually depends on others for one's own maintenance.
a. Informal A glutton.
b. Slang A drunkard.