sponge
noun
[ spʌn(d)ʒ ]
• a primitive sedentary aquatic invertebrate with a soft porous body that is typically supported by a framework of fibres or calcareous or glassy spicules. Sponges draw in a current of water to extract nutrients and oxygen.
• a piece of a soft, light, porous absorbent substance originally consisting of the fibrous skeleton of an aquatic invertebrate but now usually made of synthetic material, used for washing and cleaning.
• a light cake made by beating eggs with sugar, flour, and usually butter or other fat.
• "a chocolate sponge"
• a person who lives at someone else's expense.
• a heavy drinker.
sponge
verb
• wipe or clean with a wet sponge or cloth.
• "she sponged him down in an attempt to cool his fever"
• obtain or accept money or food from other people without doing or intending to do anything in return.
• "they found they could earn a perfectly good living by sponging off others"
Similar:
scrounge off/from,
live off,
be a parasite on,
impose on,
beg from,
borrow from,
be dependent on,
freeload on,
bum off,
cadge from,
mooch off,
bludge on,
Origin:
Old English (in sponge (sense 2 of the noun)), via Latin from Greek spongia, later form of spongos, reinforced in Middle English by Old French esponge .
