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A bit of sponge, cloth, or the like, fastened to a handle, for cleansing the mouth of a sick person, applying medicaments to deep- seated parts, etc.

Wet, spongy land; soft, low ground saturated with water, but not usually covered with it; marshy ground away from the seashore. Gray swamps and pools, waste places of the hern. Tennyson. A swamp differs from a bog and a marsh in producing trees and shrubs, while the latter produce only herbage, plants, and mosses. Farm…

Consisting of swamp; like a swamp; low, wet, and spongy; as, swampy land.

A division of calcareous sponges.

The ectoderm of a sponge.

A sense organ found in certain sponges. It consists of several filaments, each of which arises from a single cell.

A roll of lint or linen, or a conical or cylindrical piece of sponge or other absorbent, used chiefly to dilate a natural canal, to keep open the orifice of a wound, or to absorb discharges.

Any species of sponge of the division Tetractinellida. Also used adjectively.

A division of Spongiæ in which the spicules are siliceous and have four branches diverging at right angles. Called also Tetractinellinæ.

Having four branches diverging at right angles; -- said of certain spicules of sponges.

elf. The fruit is very fibrous, and, when separated from its rind and seeds, is used as a sponge or towel. Called also Egyptian bath sponge, and dishcloth.

parasite. [R.] L'Estrange. -- Trencher friend, one who frequents the tables of others; a sponger. -- Trencher mate, a table companion; a parasite; a trencher fly. Hooker.

A delicate, hairlike siliceous spicule, found in certain sponges. Trichite sheaf (Zoöl.), one of the small sheaflike fascicles of slender setæ characteristic of certain sponges. See Illust. under Spicule.

pared previously with oil or other fatty matter. (b) Cloth dyed with this red. -- Turkey sponge. (Zoöl.) See Toilet sponge, under Sponge. -- Turkey stone, a kind of oilstone from Turkey; novaculite; -- called also Turkey oilstone.

of running. [Prov. Eng.] -- Velvet scoter. (Zoöl.) Same as Velvet duck, above. -- Velvet sponge. (Zoöl.) See under Sponge.

Any one of numerous species of siliceous fossil sponges belonging to Ventriculites and allied genera, characteristic of the Cretaceous period.

The body cavity of a sponge.

ed Venus's bath. -- Venus's basket (Zoöl.), an elegant, cornucopia-shaped, hexactinellid sponge (Euplectella speciosa) native of the East Indies. It consists of glassy, transparent, siliceous fibers interwoven and soldered together so as to form a firm network, and has long, slender, divergent anchoring fibers at the…

A small perforated box for holding aromatic vinegar contained in a sponge, or a smelling bottle for smelling salts; -- called also vinegarette.

r negative, electricity. -- Vitreous humor. (Anat.) See the Note under Eye. -- Vitreous sponge (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of siliceous sponges having, often fibrous, glassy spicules which are normally six-rayed; a hexactinellid sponge. See Venus's basket, under Venus.