[f. SPONGE v. + -ING2.] That sponges on others; parasitic.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, A Spunging Fellow, one that lives upon the rest and Pays nothing.
1707. J. Stevens, trans. Quevedo’s Com. Wks. (1709), 353. There is a sort of Spunging, elemosinary Travellers.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, iii. To some of my readers Methodism may mean nothing more than … sponging preachers, and hypocritical jargon.
1889. Times, 7 Oct., 8/3. The daughter of a ‘sponging’ drunkard.
