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Glite Dictionary
🛋️ A freeloader 🌊 A sponge collector
sponger

sponger

1 9.2
A person who dives to collect natural sea sponges
  • noun
  • /ˈspʌŋər/
translation icon : recolector de esponjas
  • The sponger dove into the clear water to harvest fresh sponges from the seabed.

Examples

  • Many spongers work tirelessly during the summer months to collect enough sponges for the market.

  • As a dedicated sponger, he relied on the bounty of the ocean to support his family.

  • - Spongers.

    War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave (2008)

  • He lectured the thousands of men and women who had brought the PSS to power on the ills of alcohol: "It is a great mistake to go to the cantinas and spend money that you worked hard to earn, leaving it in the hands of the octopuses and spongers who never want the people to progress and better themselves."

    Academic text (2002)

Surface Forms

sponger singular
spongers plural

Morphology

sponger = sponge (transparent) = sponge + er

The word is a regular agent noun formed from 'sponge' + '-er', meaning a person associated with sponges.

Etymology

Sponger first meant a person who gathers natural sponges from the sea. It comes from sponge, the soft sea animal people used for washing because it 'soaks up' water, so a sponger is literally someone who collects those sponges.