a. Forms: α. 6–9 spungy, 6 -ye, 6–7 -ie. β. 6–7 spongie, 7–9 spongey, 7– spongy. [f. SPONGE sb.1 + -Y.]
1. Having a soft elastic or porous texture resembling that of a sponge; deficient in solidity or firmness, so as to be readily compressible: a. Of flesh, animal tissue, etc., sometimes with special reference to morbid conditions.
α. 1539. Elyot, Cast. Helthe, 31 b. The tounge is of a spungy & sanguine substance.
1545. Raynald, Byrth Mankynde, 45. Leuing al the grosser part in ye spungye body of the houpe-call.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1653), 15. If the disease be a Kinde of spungie flesh.
1695. J. Edwards, Perfect. Script., 245. The lower part of the ear … is spungy and flexible.
1712. S. Sewall, Diary, 4 Jan. Major Walley’s Left foot is opened underneath, and found to be very hollow and spungy.
fig. a. 1628. F. Grevil, Alaham, II. iii. The spungie hearts of men Their hollowes gladly fill with women’s love.
β. 1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep. (1658), 158. It hath in the tongue a spongy and mucous extremity.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), V. 250. The muscular, spongy flesh of the tongue.
1809. Med. Jrnl., XXI. 339. The other parts … were very pulpy, soft, spongy, and broken down.
1843. R. J. Graves, Syst. Clin. Med., xvi. 192. His mouth became very sore,… his gums spongy.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 204. Islets of spongy tissue separate the individual nodules.
b. Of parts of plants, timber, etc.
α. 1589. Pappe w. Hatchet, C iv. Elders … being fullest of spungie pith, proue euer the driest kixes.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 506. The wood is of a spungie substance.
1710. Whitworth, Acc. Russia (1758), 135. Timber … cut in the spring after the sap is run up, which makes the wood spungy.
1769. E. Bancroft, Guiana, 47. Their internal substance is white, spungy, and saponaceous.
1807. Crabbe, Birth Flattery, 301. Where spungy rushes hide the plashy green.
β. 1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 181. The roote is white and of a spongie substance.
1671. Grew, Anat. Pl. (1682), 47. This Inner Coat … is a very Spongy and Sappy body.
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 522. Then rise the tender germs, upstarting quick, And spreading wide their spongy lobes.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 182. The shoots there are generally more luxuriant and spongy.
1860. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., V. VI. vi. § 4. 43. A root [of a tree], properly so called, is a fibre, spongy or absorbent at the extremity.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 410. Lamellar cavernous parenchyma … which from this spongy character has also been called ‘spongy parenchyma.’
c. Of ground or soil, esp. through excess of moisture.
α. 1652. Earl Monm., trans. Bentivoglio’s Hist. Relat., 10. The scituation of all the other Provinces is low and spungie.
1677. Lond. Gaz., No. 1224/3. The ground about the place being very spungy in wet weather.
1708. J. C., Compl. Collier (1845), 25. It must of necessity rise through the Spungy Earth.
1799. Scotland Descr. (ed. 2), 16. The morasses, of which the soil is either a spungy turf, or a black consistent peat-earth, are still very extensive.
c. 1853. Kingsley, Misc. (1859), I. 151. The soft tread of … horse-hoofs upon the spungy vegetable soil.
β. 1732. Ray’s Disc. (ed. 4), 12. A spongey kind of Earth.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), III. 793. Rotten spongy ground.
1818. Shelley, Marenghi, xxiv. The coarse bulbs of iris-flowers he found Knotted in clumps under the spongy ground.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 507. Where clay is … very spongy, tough, and wet.
1889. F. Cowper, Capt. of Wight, 259. There is not a hole or a spongy place anywhere.
d. In miscellaneous applications.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, V. xx. 577. Neither must it [manchet bread] be made too light or spungie.
1672. Petty, Pol. Anat., 375. The art of making the excellent, thick, spungy, warm coverlets, seems to be lost.
1713. Gay, Rur. Sports, 135. When floating Clouds their spongy Fleeces drain. Ibid. (1716), Trivia, I. 45. The Frieze’s Spongy Nap is soaked with Rain.
1753. Hanway, Trav., V. lxix. (1762), I. 314. Their cloths are spungy, but they are thin, light, and soft.
1834. Brit. Husb., I. 340. The ashes … produced from soft soap … will be found light and spongy.
1836–41. Brande, Chem. (ed. 5), 109. The rising of fluids in porous and spongy bodies.
2. Of hard substances: Having an open porous structure resembling that of a sponge: a. Of bones, spec. of certain bones of the skull.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. vi. 573. Whereby the moist Brain’s spongy boan doth sup Sweet-smelling fumes.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 123. It is called by the phisicions the siue-bone, or otherwise (& that more properly) the spungy bone.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 401. A Splent is a spungy harde grissell or bone, growing fast on the inside of the shin-bone of a Horse.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl. s.v. Bone, Bones … which have thin solid sides, and a thick intermediate spongy part.
1854. Owen, in Orr’s Circ. Sci., Org. Nat., I. 166. Most of the bones of fishes are solid or spongy in their interior.
1876. Quain’s Anat. (ed. 8), I. 53. The inferior turbinated, maxillo-turbinal, or spongy bone, is a slender lamina, attached [etc.].
b. Of stone, ice, minerals, etc.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 22. The walls … consisting of great square stone, hard, blacke, and spongie.
1694. Marten’s Voy. Spitzbergen, in Acc. Sev. Voy., II. 44. This Ice becometh very spungy by the dashing of the Sea.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. 13. When it [silex] is exceedingly comminuted,… it is light and spungy.
1800. trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 333. Hence those tender calcareous, cellular stones, and perhaps also the spungy tufs.
1834. L. Ritchie, Wand. by Seine, 74. Such stones as were most spungy and defective, and, of course, most easily cut.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xxiii. 231. The falling of some of the party through the spongy ice.
c. Of metals, esp. platinum.
1807. T. Thomson, Chem. (ed. 3), II. 64. Spongy alumina, when exposed to a red heat, loses 0.58 parts of its weight.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., xiv. (1842), 314. Spongy platina … causes the union of oxygen and oxide of carbon at common temperatures.
1849. D. Campbell, Inorg. Chem., 246. [This] leaves the metal, in a highly divided state, as a greyish-black powder, and known as spongy platinum.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 845/2. The production of spongy platinum … is a task more easy in appearance than in reality.
3. a. Resembling a sponge in respect of moisture or capacity for containing this.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. IV. Handicrafts, 759. With th’ other hand he gripes and wringeth forth The spungy Globe of th’ execrable Earth.
1602. Marston, Ant. & Mel., IV. Even this brinish marsh Shall squeaze out teares from out his spungy cheekes.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., IV. ii. 349. I saw … the Roman Eagle wing’d From the spungy South, to this part of the West.
1659. S. Titus, Killing no Murder, 5. Had not his Highnes had a faculty to be fluent in his teares…: Had he not had spungie eyes [etc.].
1872. Echo, 10 Aug. After plenty of rain, with leaden water and a dismal, spongy look everywhere.
fig. 1599. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., Prol. With a gripe, [to] Crush out the humour of such spongie soules.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Mer, When Princes doe squeeze out of their spungie Officers the moisture which they haue purloyned from them.
b. Resembling a sponge in absorptive qualities; absorbent. Chiefly fig.
1605. Shaks., Macb., I. vii. 71. What [can we] not put vpon His spungie Officers? Ibid. (1606), Tr. & Cr., II. ii. 12. There is no Lady … More spungie, to sucke in the sense of Feare.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 438. Oft whole sheets descend of slucy Rain, Suck’d by the spongy Clouds from off the Main.
c. Of the nature or character of a sponger or parasite; = SPONGING ppl. a.
1602. Marston, Ant. & Mel., IV. Blowne up with the flattering puffes Of spungy sycophants.
4. fig. Deficient in substance or solidity.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, III. v. 524. The wordes: no longer windie or spungie, but of fleshe and bone.
1665. J. Webb, Stone-Heng (1725), 82. To set a petty Gloss upon a spungy Conjecture.
1680. H. More, Apocal. Apoc., 273. R. H. in his answer … is plainly not so much copious as loose and spungy, and not at all solid.
1829. [H. D. Best], Pers. & Lit. Mem., 171. The puffy, spungy,… washy, style that prevails at the present day.
1896. St. James’s Gaz., 6 Jan., 4/2. Mr. Olney’s English is, as usual, rather spongy.
5. Of texture or other qualities: Resembling that of a sponge.
1611. Cotgr., Spongiosité,… a spungie lightnesse.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., IV. xxvii. [The lungs] Built of a lighter frame, and spungie mold.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 84. Hollow, spungy Texture of Parts.
1765. A. Dickson, Treat. Agric. (ed. 2), 69. The soil may be of a spungy nature.
1800. Med. Jrnl., III. 199. The sore had an ugly, spungy aspect.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., xiv. (1842), 315. The platina in the spongy state.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. xxvi. 372. The ice on which the dirt-bands rest … appears to be of a spongier character.
fig. 1865. Geo. Eliot, Ess. (1884), 202. A spongy texture of mind that gravitates strongly to nothing.
6. Resembling that pressed from a sponge.
1605. G. Ellis, Lament. Lost Sheep, lxxvii. That spungy moysture, that in deadly thrall For thy pale lips the sonnes of men thought meete.
a. 1864. Hawthorne, Amer. Note-bks. (1879), II. 191. With a spongy moisture diffused through the atmosphere.
7. Comb., as spongy-flowered, -footed, -looking, -wet, -wooded adjs.
1825. Greenhouse Comp., II. 26. A spongy-wooded greenhouse shrub.
1829. Loudon, Encycl. Plants (1836), 600. Adlumia cirrhosa; spongy-flower’d.
1835. Willis, Pencillings, II. lv. 130. The small donkey … pricking back his long ears as if he were counting his spongy-footed followers.
1855. Tennyson, To Rev. F. D. Maurice, xi. The lawn as yet Is hoar with rime, or spongy-wet.
1870. H. A. Nicholson, Man. Zool., xiv. (1875), 143. It forms spongy-looking, orange-coloured crusts.
