loufah sponge
1
6.3
- noun
- /ˈluːfə spʌndʒ/
- UK
:
esponja de lufa
- She prefers using a loofah sponge instead of a regular washcloth for her daily skincare routine.
Examples
-
They look like loofah sponges.
Blog text (4) -
In fact, the distribution of visible matter in the cosmos looks rather like the arrangement of holes and fibers in a loofah sponge: perfect loofahneity.
Academic text (2005) -
You can use a loofah sponge to gently exfoliate your skin in the shower.
-
A loofah sponge is great for creating a rich lather with your favorite body wash.
Synonyms
8
6.7
The dried stringy inside of the fruit that people use as a natural sponge for washing
1
8.1
A dried plant sponge used for washing the body
A dry fibrous sponge made from the inside of a plant fruit used for washing the body
A soft cloth that soaks up water for cleaning and drying surfaces
How Abrasive
Surface Forms
Morphology
loufah + sponge
The meaning 'a sponge made from the dried fibrous skeleton of the luffa plant' is directly compositional from 'loufah' (the plant/fibrous material) + 'sponge' (porous cleaning material). This is a regular noun–noun material/type modification pattern found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituent meanings would readily infer the MWE; the only complication is that 'loufah' is low-frequency/variant spelled, but that does not change its transparency.
Etymology
Loufah sponge comes from the dried inside of a long fruit of the loufah plant; when it dries, the inside becomes a rough, stringy net that acts like a sponge. So, the name loufah sponge means 'a natural sponge used for washing'.