Forms: α. 1– sponge (2 spunge). β. (Chiefly north. and Sc.) 4–7 spounge, 5 spoungge, spwnge, 5–6 spownge, 6 spoung, 6, 9 spoonge. γ. 6–9 spunge, 7 spundge. [OE. sponge (acc. -ean) and spunge (spiunge), ad. L. spongia, spongea, a. Gr. σπογγιά, later derivative form of σπόγγος sponge. In other Teutonic languages the word appears as OS. spunsia, MDu. spongie, sponge, sponse (WFlem. sponsie, Du. spons, WFris. spons, spouns), and in the Romanic group as OF. esponge (16th cent. in Littré), F. éponge, Sp. and Pg. esponja, It. spugna.
OE. had also the more popular and older form spynge, spinge.]
I. 1. The soft, light, porous, and easily compressible framework that remains after the living matter has been removed from various species of porifers (see 3), characterized by readily absorbing fluids and yielding them on pressure, and much used in bathing, cleansing surfaces, etc.
In older Sc. use (see β) app. also ‘a brush.’
α. c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. xxvii. 48. Ða hrædlice arn an heora & ʓenam ane spongean [c. 1160 ænne spongen], & fylde hiʓ mnid ecede.
c. 1160. Hatton Gosp., Mk. xv. 36. Þa arn hyre an & fylde ane spunge mid eisile.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 262. Nes his pitaunce o rode bute a sponge of galle.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 185. Sponges i-watred and i-holde at hir nostrilles.
a. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc. 26. In þe mornyng be it clensed with hote watre and a sponge.
1497. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 88. Sponges grete ij and small xxvj.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 41. Than washe your shepe there-with, with a sponge or a pece of an olde mantell.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 204 b. The Crosse,… Nayles, Sponge, launce, Crowne of thorne.
1568. Bible (Bishops’), Mark xv. 36. And one ran, and fylled a spunge full of vineger, and put it on a reede, & gaue hym to drynke.
1625. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. v. (1635), 68. Others againe … suppose the earth to bee like a sponge to drinke vp the water.
1676. L’Estrange, Seneca’s Mor., Anger, xii. (1696), 423. He … caus’d their Mouths to be stopt with Sponges.
1800. Med. Jrnl., III. 556. I have constantly recommended cold vinegar … to be applied … by means of a sponge.
1863. Ansted, Ionian Isl., 255. A considerable fishery for fine sponges, of which many, fully equal to fine Turkey sponges, come into the market.
1876. Harley, Royle’s Mat. Med., 783. The Sponge is imported from the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
β. 1388. Wyclif, Mark xv. 36. And oon ranne, and fillide a spounge with vynegre.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), iii. 9. [Þai] held to þaire noses spoungez moisted with water.
1483. Cath. Angl., 356/1. A Spoungge…, spongia.
1491. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 188. For a spwnge to the Kingis claythis, ij s. Ibid. (1501), II. 27. Byrs spowngis for the Kingis bonatis, vj d. Ibid. (1549), IX. 353. Item, ane spoung send to Dunfermeling to his graces sone, iiij s.
1612. Halyburton’s Ledger (1867), 329. Spounges or brushes.
γ. 1572. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 180. For spunges for snoballs.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 425. The Spunge is full of water, yet is it not seene.
1661. J. Childrey, Brit. Baconica, 41. An earth porous like a spunge.
1726. Pope, Odyss., XX. 189. And let the abstersive spunge the board renew.
1767. Gooch, Treat. Wounds, I. 259. To wipe it dry with a spunge.
fig. 1602. How Chuse Good Wife, V. ii. For her death The spunge of either eye Shall weep red tears.
1622. Donne, Serm., xvi. 159. Every man is but a spunge, and but a spunge filled with teares.
1726. Bolingbroke, Study Hist., vii. (1752), I. 265. Colbert made the most of all these advantageous circumstances, and whilst he filled the national spunge, he taught his successors how to squeeze it.
transf. 1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 271. With flew or wooll of Hares … the Grecians made spunges … to clense the eies of men.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Pyrotechnical Spunges are made of the large Mushrooms or fungous Excrescences growing on old Oaks, Ashes, Firs, &c.
b. As a type of something of small value.
1671. Milton, P. R., IV. 329. Collecting toys, And trifles for choice matters, worth a spunge.
c. To throw (or chuck) up the sponge, to abandon a contest or struggle; to submit, give in. colloq.
1860. Slang Dict., 224. ‘To throw up the sponge,’ to submit, give over the struggle,—from the practice of throwing up the sponge used to cleanse the combatants’ faces, at a prize-fight, as a signal that the ‘mill’ is concluded.
1877. T. A. Trollope, Life Pius IX., II. 130. This tranquil confidence … degenerated … into inertness, acquiescence in evil, and … throwing up the sponge.
1889. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Robbery under Arms, xxiv. If Tim had got this letter … he’d have chucked up the sponge and cleared out for good and all.
2. Without article: The material of which this is composed.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIII. xxviii. (Tollem. MS.). It is made harde and turneþ in to sponge.
1683. Salmon, Doron Med., I. 110. If for Application by Spunge, Cloath, or Stuph.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., s.v., A pound of spunge…, on drying carefully…, will be reduced to eleven ounces. Ibid., Burnt spunge is much recommended as a sweetner of the blood.
1813. J. Thomson, Lect. Inflam., 345. The tent was formed of prepared sponge.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., I. 382/2. Inferior sponge, with a large-holed texture, called horse sponge.
transf. 1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2286/1. Artificial sponge is made of caoutchouc [etc.].
3. Zool. One or other of various species of aquatic (chiefly marine) animals (or colony of animals) of a low order belonging to the group Porifera, characterized by a tough elastic skeleton of interlaced fibers.
1538. Elyot, Achilleum, a sponge, which is verye softe, and hath smalle holes. Ibid. (1552), Cystiolithi, certayne stones, whiche growe in spunges, holsome against diseases of the bladder.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Providence, xxxiv. Frogs marry fish and flesh; bats, bird and beast; Sponges, non-sense and sense.
1651. Jer. Taylor, Course Serm., I. 4. We are no more such really, then Mandrakes are Men, or Spunges are living creatures.
1725. Family Dict., s.v., The Ancients would have a Spunge to be Zoophite. Ibid., There are two sorts of Spunges, the Male … and the Female.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), I. 289. Here are seen the madrepores, the sponges, mosses, sea mushrooms, and other marine productions.
1834. H. M’Murtrie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 11. It is a kind of sponge, which has the same form as the body.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., xiv. 249. Around the reeds … we see fresh-water sponges.
1884. Goode, Nat. Hist. Aquat. Anim., 843. Nearly all Sponges possess a skeleton or the rudiments of one.
b. With distinguishing terms, denoting various species of these.
Glass-rope sponge, glass-sponge: see GLASS sb.1 16.
1681. Grew, Musæum, II. V. ii. 251. The Hollow Cylindrick or Pipe-Sponge.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., s.v., 9. The branched river-spunge. 10. The hairy spunge. 11. The sail spunge [etc.].
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 708. Branched sponge;… cock’s comb sponge;… tow-sponge [etc.].
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. III. ii. 89. Fine Syrian Sponge…. Fine Archipelago Sponge…. White Sponge of Syria, called also Venetian Sponge.
1883. Adderley, Fisheries Bahamas, 49. The finest type of all, the Levant toilet or Turkish cup-sponge (Spongia officinalis).
† c. Sponge of the river: (see quot.). Obs.
1611. Cotgr., Esponge d’eau douce, a certaine hearbe, that flotes on riuers, and is called, Spunge of the riuer.
4. A moistened piece of the above substance (sense 1) as used for wiping a surface in order to obliterate writing, etc. Also in fig. context.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 196. The leaues, wheron they wryte with any sharpe instrument, and blotte the same againe with a spunge or sum suche other thynge.
1591. Spenser, Ruins Time, 361. Great ones…, Of whome no word we heare, nor signe now see, But as things wipt out with a sponge to perishe.
1644. Sir E. Dering, Prop. Sacr., c iiij b. Clavis Mystica under-went a great deal of Spunge.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 216. The hand-writing against us is not blotted out, yet … we have a sponge given us to wipe it away ourselves.
1865. Miss Braddon, Only a Clod, I. iv. 43. Do you think two years’ absence won’t act as a sponge, and wipe my image out of her thoughts?
1867. Goldw. Smith, 3 Eng. Statesmen (1882), 212. No great nature ever passes a sponge over its former self.
b. fig. That which blots out of existence, wipes out of memory, effaces, etc.
1558. Bp. Watson, Sev. Sacram., xviii. 117. Daylye confession … is … a sponge to wype awaye the fylthynesse of oure synnes.
1657. Trapp, Comm. Ezra ix. 7. Confession … is that happy Spunge, that wipeth out all the blottes and blurres of our lives.
1748. J. Geddes, Composit. Antients, 268. Fear, grief, pain, and desire, are the most effectual spunges!
1799. Han. More, Fem. Educ. (ed. 4), I. 36. Which fits of charity are made the sponge of every sin, and the substitute of every virtue.
c. A method of cancelling or wiping off debts without payment.
1717. (title) Fair Payment no Spunge: or, some Considerations on the Unreasonableness of Refusing to Receive back Money Lent on Publick Securities.
1753. Hanway, Trav., I. vii. (1762), II. 40. We have an example in France … of a large national debt being paid with a sponge.
1787. Bentham, Def. Usury, xii. 124. A spunge … is the only needful and only availing remedy.
1803. Cobbett, in Pol. Reg. (1817), 8 Feb., 176. Your tax upon the funds, or … that admirable sponge which you are now about to apply to one twentieth part of the debt.
5. A kind of mop or swab for cleansing a cannon-bore after firing.
a. 1625. Nomenclator Navalis (Harl. MS. 2301), s.v., The spunge of a peece of Ordnaunce is that which makes it cleane; they are comonlie Sheepeskins putt at the ende of a Staffe.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., xiv. 66. A Spunge is such another staffe, with a peece of a Lambe skin at the end…, to thrust vp and downe the Peece.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., V. xii. 45. A Gunner … ought to have in readiness … Sheep-skins to make Spunges.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine, s.v. Cannon, In the land-service, the handle of the spunge is nothing else than a long wooden staff.
1846. A. Young, Naut. Dict., 292. For a long gun, the sponge and rammer are fixed each on a separate staff.
1884. ‘H. Collingwood’ (W. J. C. Lancaster), Under Meteor Flag, 40. A sponge was thrust out of one of the upper deck ports, catching him in the face.
II. 6. † a. The fibrous matted root of asparagus shoots. Obs.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., IV. 233. This seedis [of asparagus] wol connect intil oon roote, This calle a sponge.
1563. Hyll, Art Garden. (1593), 58. The small rootes will be so folded and tyed one to an other, that they will seeme to be fastned and ioyned togither in one, and this is named of the ancient Gardner, a Spunge.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. (1586), 54. The rootes haue sundry long threeds, which they call the Spoonge.
b. A spongy gall or excrescence on rose-bushes; = BEDEGUAR 2.
1608. Topsell, Serpents, 97. A certaine little Worme which is found in the sponge of the Dogge-bryer (called of the Physitions Bedeguar).
1698. Phil. Trans., XX. 464. In brief, it is nothing else but the Sponge of the Dogs Rose, called by some Bedeguar.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. III. v. 153. Bedeguars—commonly called ‘Soft Apples’ or ‘Vegetable Sponges.’
c. Something having the appearance or consistency of a sponge.
1683. K. Digby, Chym. Secr., 12. The ☉ and ☿ will be precipitated indistinguishible, in the form of a black Spunge.
1893. F. F. Moore, Gray Eye or So, II. 106. Sitting for five or six hours on gigantic sponges (damp) of heather.
d. The soft fermenting dough of which bread is made. Freq. in the phr. to set (or lay) the sponge.
1822. Imison’s Sci. & Art, II. 152. This is called setting the sponge.
1830. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., I. 355. To this strained matter, one half of the whole quantity of flour is to be added, and well worked up with the hands so as to form sponge.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., 113. The mass swells up, or, as the baker terms it, the sponge rises.
1896. T. Hardy, Jude, V. iii. He was obliged to go to bed at night immediately after laying the sponge.
e. A stretch of ground of a swampy nature.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 157. I am aware of but a single attempt, as yet, to cultivate the sponge or true swamp soil.
1890. Contemp. Rev., Jan., 137. The ‘great sponge,’ from which the Zambesi and the Congo draw their remote supplies.
1901. Q. Rev., July, 22. It has been conjectured that some of these sponges may be fed by the waters of the Victoria Nyanza percolating through the soil.
f. techn. Metal in a porous or sponge-like form, usu. obtained by reduction without fusion.
1861. Sir W. Fairbairn, Iron, 176. M. Chenot makes steel direct from the ore by converting it into a substance he calls sponge, in a peculiarly constructed furnace.
1877. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 389. To remove the silver sponge, which falls to the bottom and is taken out. This sponge is very light.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 844. The sponge … is plunged in a bath of resin, tar, or some fatty matter.
† 7. An open-work coat of mail. Obs.–1
1600. Holland, Livy, IX. xl. 344. Their brest and stomack was fenced with spounges, the left leg armed with a good greeue.
III. fig. 8. An immoderate drinker; a soaker.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., I. ii. 108. I will doe any thing Nerrissa ere I will be married to a spunge.
1693. Bowles, in Dryden’s Juvenal, V. 34. For him is kept a Liquor more Divine, You Spunges must be drunk with Lees of Wine.
1708. Brit. Apollo, No. 73. 2/2. For ever too th’ Amphibious Spunge does drink.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., Spunge, a thirsty fellow, a great drinker.
1887. Henley, Villon’s Good-night, 3. You spunges miking round the pubs.
9. One who or that which absorbs, drains, or sucks up, in a sponge-like manner.
In various passages of Elizabethan writers the exact sense of the word is not quite clear.
1603. J. Davies (Heref.), Microcosmos, Wks. (Grosart), I. 63/1. These senslesse spunges of Improbity Are full of pleasure, but it is vnright.
1607. Walkington, Opt. Glass, xii. (1664), 130. We count a Melancholick man the very Spunge of all sad Humors.
1677. Otway, Cheats of Scapin, II. i. Do ye not see every Day how the Spunges [sc. the lawyers] suck poor Clients.
1755. Young, Centaur, iii. Wks. 1757, IV. 168. Our thirsty spunges of sensuality, who suck up every drop of it.
1891. O. W. Holmes, Over Teacups, viii. 181. The muscles are great sponges that suck up and make use of large quantities of blood.
1893. Saltus, Madam Sapphira, 219. Alter hours of that sponge for thought [sc. fatigue] which the saddle alone supplies.
b. spec. One who or that which appropriates or absorbs material or other advantages, wealth, etc.
1601. Sir W. Cornwallis, Ess., xl. Cc iv. This spunge sucketh dry the commerce of societies.
1602. Shaks., Ham., IV. ii. 12. Rosin. Take you me for a Spundge, my Lord? Ham. I sir, that sokes vp the Kings Countenances, his Rewards, his Authorities.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. § 162. Ireland, which had been a Spunge to draw … all that could be got from England.
c. A person, etc., of this kind as a source from which something may be recovered or extracted.
1602. Shaks., Ham., IV. ii. 22. It is but squeezing you, and Spundge you shall be dry againe.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Prerog. Parl., 9. The people,… when they saw hee had squeased those spunges of the Common-wealth,… willingly yeelded to giue him satisfaction.
c. 1670. Hobbes, Dial. Com. Laws (1681), 156. Empson and Dudley were no Favourites of Hen. the 7th, but Spunges, which King Hen. the 8th did well squeeze.
1722–7. Boyer, Dict. Royal, I. Presser l’éponge,… to squeeze the Spunge, to make one refund.
1779. Earl Carlisle, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1844), IV. 256. He is a sponge full of knowledge, which you may squeeze at your leisure.
d. An object of extortion; a source of profit or pecuniary advantage.
1625. Purchas, Pilgrims, II. 1480. Which make Merchants to conceale their Riches lest they should be made Spunges.
1630. Brathwait, Eng. Gentlem. (1641), 31. Another not so proud as covetous:… such an one makes all his inferiours his sponges.
1781. Cowper, Expost., 531. Thy monarchs … in distress Found thee a goodly sponge for Power to press.
1821. Examiner, 744/1. Ireland has been made all along a sponge for sinecurists, a field for jobbers.
1835. G. P. R. James, Gipsy, ii. I will be no sponge to be squeezed for any man’s pleasure.
10. One who meanly lives at the expense of others; a parasite, a sponger.
1838. Stephens, Trav. Greece, etc. I. 163. As I could only contribute [to the meal] a couple of rolls of bread…, I am inclined to think that he considered me rather a sponge.
1866. Whipple, Char. & Charac. Men, 22. That large … class of our fellow-citizens who are commonly included in the genus ‘sponge.’
1883. H. Drummond, Nat. Law in Spir. W., 350. All social sponges; all satellites of the court; all beggars of the market-place.
IV. attrib. and Comb. 11. a. Attrib. in various uses, as sponge-bag, -bank, -basin, -bath, -bed, etc.
The number of such combs. in recent use is very large, chiefly in the senses ‘forming part of, found in, sponges,’ ‘producing or yielding sponges,’ ‘used in fishing for sponges,’ ‘used or intended for holding a sponge.’
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Sponge-bag, an oil-skin case for a toilet sponge.
1885. Lady Brassey, The Trades, 333. Then we went … to see the *sponge-bank, where some of the finest specimens of sponge are procured.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 5825, *Sponge basin, soap box.
1859. Habits of Gd. Society, i. (new ed.), 106. The best bath for general purposes … is a *sponge bath.
1883. in Adderley, Fisheries Bahamas, 55. The complete exhaustion of the *sponge beds.
1885. Lady Brassey, The Trades, 310. It is through this strait that many if not most of the *sponge-boats go.
1849. H. J. Carter, in Ann. Nat. Hist., IV. 87. When living and isolated the *sponge-cell is polymorphous.
1883. Adderley, Fisheries Bahamas, 7. A new *sponge-field was discovered last year.
1867. Chambers’s Encycl., IX. 57/2. The number of men employed in the Ottoman *sponge-fishery is between 4000 and 5000.
1855. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 2), 28. To this contractile substance … he [M. Dujardin] proposed to give provisionally the name of Halisarca (*sponge-flesh).
1883. Adderley, Fisheries Bahamas, 53. To … protect the selected *sponge grounds from robbery.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 128. Drilling through their pores or *spungholes. Ibid., 185. Any little spungholes or crannies.
1883. Adderley, Fisheries Bahamas, 6. They are taken to Nassau to be sold in the *sponge-market.
1870. H. A. Nicholson, Man. Zool., v. 70. The so-called *‘sponge-particles’ or ‘sarcoids.’
1889. Science-Gossip, XXV. 230. Sometimes casts of the exhalant *sponge pores were made in chalcedony overlaid with quartz.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 821. The free bleeding will be staunched by *sponge-pressure.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., xvi. 271. A highly fossiliferous limestone with … *sponge spicules.
1885. J. E. Taylor, Brit. Fossils, i. 17. The various appearances of *sponge structure under the microscope.
1887. Encycl. Brit., XXII. 429/2. Recent statistics as to the extent of the *sponge trade.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 6130, *Sponge tray, soap boxes.
1848. Carpenter, Anim. Phys., ii. 113. The class of Porifera, or the *Sponge tribe.
1883. Encycl. Brit., XVI. 689/1. Within the trabeculæ of the *sponge-work blood circulates.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 266. The blood-vessels form an expressible sponge-work.
1885. Lady Brassey, The Trades, 310. Many *sponge-yards, where the process of cleaning and drying sponges is carried on.
b. In the sense ‘made of sponge.’
1859. Semple, Diphtheria, 248. The *sponge-brush is moistened with the caustic liquid.
1849. Noad, Electricity (ed. 3), 490. A rapid series of shocks may thus be communicated … by means of the *sponge directors.
1837. Penny Cycl., IX. 27/1. Its interior may be … cleaned by … running *sponge-rammers through the … straight pipes.
1739. S. Sharp, Treat. Surgery, p. xxi. A piece of *Sponge-Tent, which is made by dipping a dry bit of Sponge in melted Wax [etc.].
1803. Med. Jrnl., X. 490. Keeping the abscess open by means of a sponge tent.
1876. Trans. Clinical Soc., IX. 106. Sponge-tents are to be used to dilate the wound.
12. Comb. a. Parasynthetic, as sponge-colo(u)red, -footed, -leaved, etc. b. With agent-nouns, as sponge-diver, -fisher, -maker, etc. c. With vbl. sbs. and ppl. adjs., as sponge-bearing, -farming, -fishing, etc.
a. 1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl. s.v. Pine, Spunge-leaved Pine.
1826–7. Encycl. Metrop. (1845), XVIII. 580. Fluviatile, sponge-shaped.
1845. G. Dodd, Brit. Manuf., IV. 33. A very curious sponge-coloured slab of stalagmitic marble.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 26 April, 1/3. The silent sponge-footed camels.
b. 1788. 6th Rep. Dep. Kpr. Pub. Rec., II. 179. Henry Cook,… Spunge Maker.
1858. Homans, Cycl. Comm., 1751. The principal sponge-fishers of the Archipelago and Levant.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., II. 238. The sponge-divers in the Archipelago.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 23 Feb., 9/1. The prisoner … was a sponge trimmer.
c. 1861. Miss Beaufort, Egypt. Sepulchres, II. 334. The sponge-gathering is a very lucrative business.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2286/1. On the Barbary coast sponge-fishing is … actively prosecuted.
1885. J. E. Taylor, Brit. Fossils, i. 16. Fossil sponge-hunting. Ibid., 23. Sponge-bearing chalk-flints.
1887. Encycl. Brit., XXII. 428/2. The method of sponge-farming.
13. Special Combs.: sponge-biscuit, a flour-biscuit of a similar composition to sponge-cake; sponge-cloth (see quots.); sponge-finger, an elongated form of sponge-biscuit; sponge-glass, a device for discovering sponges at the bottom of the sea; sponge-gold, gold as it remains after the silver has been removed in the process of ‘parting’; sponge-head, the top of an artillery sponge-staff; sponge-hook, a hook with which sponges are pulled up from the sea-bottom; sponge-iron, iron ore rendered light and porous by the removal of foreign matter; sponge-pole, = next (b); sponge-staff, (a) the staff of an artillery sponge; (b) the staff of a sponge-hook; † sponge-stone (see quots.); sponge-swamp (see sense 6 e).
1736. Bailey, Houshold Dict., s.v. Biscuit, To make *Spunge Biscuit.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 3643, Patent *sponge cloths for cleaning machinery and fire-arms.
1876. Voyle & Stevenson, Milit. Dict., 397/1. Sponge Cloth, a peculiar kind of cloth, moist with oil; it is used to clean the screws of Armstrong guns.
1906. Westm. Gaz., 11 Sept., 10/2. The biscuits, *sponge-fingers, sultana-cakes [etc.].
1885. Lady Brassey, The Trades, 301. Their *sponge-glasses … may perhaps be best described as square buckets with a glass bottom to them.
1887. Goode, Fisheries U. S., 823. The sponge-glass as originally constructed consisted of a small, square, wooden box having a glass bottom.
1882. U.S. Rep. Prec. Met., 648. Pouring melted phosphorus upon hot *sponge-gold.
1828. J. M. Spearman, Brit. Gunner (ed. 2), 177. Number 2 passes his sponge … to 4, who straps on the *sponge-head.
1840. Gen. Mercer, in R. J. Macdonald, Hist. Dress R.A. (1899), 56. Mine [i.e., a hat] was one of the low fans, with the *spunge-head feather.
1881. E. Ingersoll, Oyster Industr. (Hist. Fish. Industr. U.S.), 248. *Sponge-hook.—The bent, two-pronged iron tool at the end of a pole, with which sponges are gathered from the bottom.
1887. Goode, Fisheries U. S., 823. The sponge-hooks are made of iron, with three curved prongs, measuring in total width about 5 or 6 inches.
1874. J. A. Phillips, Elem. Metall., 434. The precipitation of copper is very rapidly effected by the use of *sponge-iron.
1881. E. Ingersoll, Oyster-Industr. (Hist. Fish. Industr. U.S.), 248. *Sponge-pole.—The pole by which the hook is operated in gathering sponges.
1772. Phil. Trans., LXII. 90. I took … sheet lead … and beat it on a *sponge staff to make it round.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4), 160. Sponge Staffs, with Hook attached, used in obtaining … sponge.
1668. Charleton, Onomast., 253. Lapis Spongiæ,… the *Sponge-stone.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 100. The Spunge-Stone … is made of the Matter of Spunges petrified.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., s.v., The spunge-stone, or tartarous incrustation on this plant.
1901. Q. Rev., July, 22. The country [Uganda] is almost like a succession of gigantic furrows, and in nearly every furrow there is a *‘sponge’ swamp, or stream-head.
b. In names of crustacea, insects, etc., as sponge centre-shell, crab, moth, shrimp.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. v. 378. And so the Sponge-Spy warily awakes The Sponge’s dull sense, when repast it takes.
1681. Grew, Musæum, I. vi. ii. 148. The Spung-Centre-Shell. Balanus Spongiarum.
1848. Maunder, Treas. Nat. Hist., 197/1. Sponge Crab.—Dromia vulgaris.
1888. Amer. Naturalist, March, 256. The Sponge Shrimp. Alpheus.
1891. Cent. Dict., Sponge-moth, the gipsy moth.
c. In names of plants, etc., as sponge-cucumber, gourd, -leather, mushroom, -tree, -wood.
1891. Cent. Dict., *Sponge-cucumber, same as sponge-gourd.
1861. Bentley, Man. Bot., 548. The fruit of Luffa fœtida is termed the *Sponge Gourd, as it consists of a mass of fibres entangled together, and is used for cleaning guns, &c.
1887. Cassell’s Encycl. Dict., *Sponge-leather,… Polytrichum commune.
1681. Grew, Musæum, II. iii. iv. 239. The *Sponge Mushroom … hath the substance of a Tree-Mushroom.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 328. *Spunge-tree, Mimosa.
1829. Loudon, Encycl. Plants, 858. Acacia farnesiana, Sponge Tree…. [Native of] St. Domin[go].
1828. Encycl. Metrop. (1845), XIX. 487/2. One species, Gastonia spongiosa, native of the Island of Bourbon; a tree with bark similar to sponge, it is called by the natives *Sponge wood.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1086/2. Spongewood, Æschynomene aspera.
