Also 7–9 spunger. [f. SPONGE v. or sb.1 + -ER1.]
1. One who lives meanly at another’s expense; a parasite, a sponge.
1677. Miége, Fr. Dict., I. Ecornifleur,… a Spunger, a smell feast.
1681. T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 74 (1713), II. 203. A Detachment of sorry Spungers from the Suburb Shovel-board Tables and Nine-pin Alleys.
1710. Swift, Lett. (1767), III. 19. I dined with some friends that board hereabout, as a spunger.
1731. Medley, Kolben’s Cape G. Hope, I. 109. My company … only listen’d as Spongers, in order to be treated with the other bottle.
1866. Cornh. Mag., Sept., 287. Shameless and impudent spungers.
1888. Pall Mall Gaz., 3 Sept., 3/2. The spongers for free hospitality at scientific and other annual congresses.
b. Const. on.
a. 1732. Gay, Fables, II. viii. Crush’d in his luxury and pride, The spunger on the public dy’d.
1860. Thackeray, Lovel, i. An old sponger on other people’s kindness.
1890. N. Lindsey Star, 9 Aug., 5/3. Those spongers on the nation’s earnings are quite happy without work.
2. One who uses a sponge, esp. in order to cleanse the bore of a cannon.
1828–32. Webster, Spunger, one who uses a sponge.
1859. Griffiths, Artill. Man. (1862), 228. 4. The sponger. 3. The loader.
1886. P. D. Haywood, in Century Mag., April, 909/1. I was serving on one of the thirty-two-pounders, and my sponger was an old man-o’-war’s man.
b. One who transfers designs to pottery by means of a piece of sponge.
1881. Instr. Census Clerks (1885), 88. Earthenware, China, Porcelain, Manufacture:… Sponger,… Stamper.
3. A gatherer of, a diver or fisher for, sponges.
1880. N. H. Bishop, 4 Months in Sneak-Box, 289. An almost uninhabited region, where only an occasional fisherman or sponger is met.
1887. Goode, Fisheries U. S., 826. To allow the slimy matter, called ‘gurry’ by the spongers, to run off easily.
b. A vessel engaged in sponge-fishing.
1885. B. Phillips, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 217/1. We cast longing glances at certain Nassau spongers, trim, shapely cock-boats, but they were not to be hired.
