Search the Dictionary

used for many purposes, especially the varieties of the genus Spongia. The most valuable sponges are found in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and on the coasts of Florida and the West Indies.

See Spongiole.

Resembling sponge; having the nature or qualities of sponge.

One who sponges, or uses a sponge.

To sprinkle, as with water from a sponge. [Poetic & Rare] [Written also dispunge.] O sovereign mistress of true melancholy, The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me. Shak.

A siliceous sponge, of the genus Hyalonema, and allied genera; -- so called from their glassy fibers or spicules; -- called also vitreous sponge. See Glass-rope, and Euplectella.

To suck up; to drink in; to imbibe; as a sponge or as the lacteals of the body. Bacon.

g flowers with eight fringed rays. The term was also formerly used for certain species of sponges.

Animals without a mouth or regular internal organs, as the sponges.

r small siliceous spicule having a denticulated wheel at each end; -- found in freshwater sponges.

swelling. Kirby. Ampullaceous sac (Zoöl.), one of the peculiar cavities in the tissues of sponges, containing the zooidal cells.

One of the anchor-shaped spicules of certain sponges; also, one of the calcareous spinules of certain Holothurians, as in species of Synapta. Anchor ice. See under Ice. -- Anchor ring. (Math.) Same as Annulus, 2 (b). -- Anchor stock (Naut.), the crossbar at the top of the shank at right angles to the arms. -- The an…

An instrument for cleansing the ear, consisting of a small piece of sponge on an ivory or bone handle.

A fresh-water sponge (Spongilla), common in the north of Europe, the powder of which is used to take away the livid marks of bruises.

An idle, worthless fellow, who is without any visible means of support; a dissipated sponger. [Slang, U.S.]

An order of marine sponges, containing calcareous spicules. See Porifera.

An order of sponges in which the skeleton consists of horny fibers. It includes all the commercial sponges.

., Russian charlotte] (Cookery), a dish composed of custard or whipped cream, inclosed in sponge cake.

A comprehensive group equivalent to the true Coelenterata, i.e., exclusive of the sponges. They are so named from presence of stinging cells (cnidae) in the tissues. See Coelenterata.

e stomach and body cavities are one. The group is sometimes enlarged so as to include the sponges.