▪ I. sponging, vbl. n.
(ˈspʌndʒɪŋ)
[f. sponge v. or n.1]
1. The action of washing or wiping with a sponge.
| 1575 in Feuillerat Revels Q. Eliz. (1908) 254 The Charges of this Office grew by meanes of..Brusshing, Spunging,..putting in order..of the garmentes, Vestures [etc.]. 1593 Nahse Christ's T. Wks. (Grosart) IV. 208 To see how you torture poore old Time with spunging, pynning and pounsing. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Spunging of a great Gun, is clearing of her Inside, after she hath been discharged, with a Wad of Sheep-skins, or the like. 1775 Ash, Sponging,..the act of wiping away as with a sponge. 1875 B. Meadows Clin. Observ. 65 Prescribed animal diet; regular exercise; cold sponging. 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 1031 There should be spongings, first with warm and afterwards with cool water. |
| attrib. 1859 Habits of Gd. Society ii. (new ed.) 122 The hip-bath..or the sponging-bath. |
2. The action of living parasitically on others.
| 1677 Miége Fr. Dict. i, Ecorniflerie,..spunging, or feast smelling. 1693 Humours Town 37 There are others whose youthful Extravagancies have driven 'em to the wretched fate of Spunging. 1731 Swift Let. to Gay 29 June, This will maintain you, with the perquisite of sponging while you are young. 1838 Longfellow in Life (1891) I. 300, I have almost given up the Portland plan. It..would look like sponging, in these hard times. 1849 Knife & Fork 32 Sponging is a subtle art—so subtle, that few out of its many thousand votaries have attained to any great eminence in it. |
| attrib. 1707 J. Stevens tr. Quevedo's Com. Wks. (1709) 225 Encouraging me to follow the spunging Course of Life. |
3. The practice or occupation of gathering sponges. Also attrib.
| 1868 H. D. Grant Rep. Wrecking in Bahamas 72 A large number of boats and men are employed in sponging. 1887 Goode Fisheries U.S. 823 The Key West sponging-fleet consisted in 1879 of 86 vessels. Ibid. 826 When on the sponging-grounds the men breakfast at daylight. |
4. Cookery. The action or process of setting a sponge of flour, yeast, water, and salt.
| 1895 J. Goodfellow Elem. Princ. Breadmaking xiv. 93 The golden rules to follow in sponging are..Work at as low a temperature as possible... Use as little yeast as possible. 1929 E. B. Bennion Breadmaking 250 Sponging and doughing. 1949 A. R. Daniel Baker's Dict., Sponging, the baker's term for setting a sponge of flour, yeast, or barm, water, and salt. |
▪ II. ˈsponging, ppl. a.
[f. sponge v. + -ing2.]
That sponges on others; parasitic.
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, A Spunging Fellow, one that lives upon the rest and Pays nothing. 1707 J. Stevens tr. Quevedo's Com. Wks. (1709) 353 There is a sort of Spunging, elemosinary Travellers. 1859 Geo. Eliot A. Bede iii, To some of my readers Methodism may mean nothing more than..sponging preachers, and hypocritical jargon. 1889 Times 7 Oct. 8/3 The daughter of a ‘sponging’ drunkard. |