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# sponge

«sponge» in Mova's school dictionary: **a soft thing full of holes that soaks up water, used for…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a sponge, sponges); verb (sponge, sponges, sponged, sponging)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A sponge is a soft thing full of holes that soaks up water, used for washing or cleaning. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sponge/#m1)

2) A sponge is a simple sea animal that lives fixed to rocks and has a body full of holes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sponge/#m2)

3) A sponge or sponge cake is a light, soft cake. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sponge/#m3)

4) To sponge something is to wipe or clean it with a wet sponge. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sponge/#m4)

5) To sponge off someone means to keep taking money or food from them without giving back (informal). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sponge/#m5)

### sense in the lessons

In science, a sponge shows absorbency: it soaks up water because of its many holes. In nature lessons, sea sponges are animals, not plants. In everyday life, people wash cars and dishes with a sponge, and eat Victoria sponge cake. Phrases: «soak up like a sponge» (learn quickly), «sponge bath».

### examples

- Wipe the table with a damp sponge. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sponge/#x1)
- The sponge soaked up all the spilled juice. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sponge/#x2)
- Sea sponges are animals that live on the ocean floor. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sponge/#x3)
- Grandma baked a jam sponge for tea. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sponge/#x4)
- She sponged the mud off her coat. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sponge/#x5)
- Little children soak up new words like a sponge. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sponge/#x6)
- We tested which material absorbs most water, and the sponge won. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sponge/#x7)
- The angry Merchant immediately turned about and drove the Ass back to the seashore, where he loaded him with two great baskets of sponges. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sponge/#x8)

### note

Countable noun; regular verb (sponged). Spelled with «o» but said «spunj». A sea sponge is an animal even though it does not move. In experiments, weigh the sponge before and after soaking: the difference is the water it holds.

### In the corpora

- [Wetlands soak up flood water like giant sponges and let it out slowly, and reed roots trap mud and clean the water.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/11-swamps-marshes-mangroves-and-bogs/17/)
- [Wild chimpanzees make tools: they fish for termites with stripped twigs, crack nuts with stones and use leaves as sponges.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/84-ape-house-gorillas-and-chimpanzees/7/)
- [Hawksbill turtles eat sponges that many other animals cannot eat, and this helps corals have more space to grow.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/174-reef-giants-and-wanderers-whale-sharks-mantas-dugongs-and-sea-turtles/14/)
- [The frogfish looks like a sponge or rock, waits for fish and swallows them quickly, even fish as big as itself.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/189-masters-of-camouflage/14/)
- [Forces do not only change speed: squeeze a sponge and you change its shape.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/5-pushes-and-pulls-all-around-us/3/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «sponge» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sponge/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.