a. Also spungoid. [f. Gr. σπόγγ-ος SPONGE sb.1 + -OID. Cf. Gr. σπογγοειδής, σπογγώδης, and SPONGEOID a.]
1. Spongoid inflammation, a kind of soft cancer or morbid growth. (Cf. FUNGUS sb. 2.)
1808. Med. Jrnl., XIX. 431. A disease totally different from that affection named by them Fungus Hæmatodes, or Spongoid Inflammation.
1834. Cooper, Goods Study Med. (ed. 4), II. 579, note. The medullary sarcoma of Abernethy, the spongoid inflammation of John Burns, and the soft cancer of several other writers.
2. Having the form or structure of a sponge.
18334. J. Phillips, Geol., in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VI. 659. The abundance of spongoid fossils is a very remarkable character of the English and Westphalian chalk.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVI. 245/1. Ventriculites, a genus of spongoid Zoophyta.
3. Resembling that of a sponge.
18479. Todds Cycl. Anat., IV. I. 29/2. Its thickness becomes considerably augmented, its texture spungoid.