Green’s Dictionary of Slang

sponge v.

also spunge
[SE from mid-19C]

1. to live on others in a parasitic manner; to obtain assistance or maintenance by mean arts; thus sponger/spunger n., one who sponges; sponging/spunging adj., parasitic.

[UK]R. L’Estrange Fables of Aesop (1692) XXXIV 33: The Fly is an Intruder, and a Common Smell-Feast, that Spunges upon Other Peoples Trenches. [Ibid.] Fables of Abstemius CCCXXXVII 302: There was a Generous and Rich man that kept a Splendid and an Open Table, [...] All People came to him Promiscuously, and a Curiosity took him in the Head to try, which of ’em were Friends, and which only Trencher-Flies and Spungers.
[UK] ‘The Poet’s Dream’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1893) VII:1 13: Those spunging pimps the house attends.
[UK]J. Dunton Night-Walker Sept. 17: Perceiving that his Pockets were always well-lin’d, he thought him a fit Person to spunge upon.
[UK]‘Phoebe Crackenthorpe’ Female Tatler (1992) (35) 84: You will find him [...] gnawing a hard crust, and sponging his liquor for want of ready rhino.
Swift Richmond Lodge and Marble Hill n.p.: Here wont the Dean, when he’s to seek, To spunge a breakfast once a week [F&H].
[UK]Smollett (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas I 194: ‘Gil Blas,’ (said he) ‘who is that tall spunger in whose company I saw thee to-day?’.
[UK]O. Goldsmith Citizen of the World I xxvi 109: They spunged up my money while it lasted, borrowed my coals and never paid for them, and cheated me when I played at cribbage.
[UK]R. King Frauds of London 72: Spungers [...] are scarce to be distinguished from the Hanger-on, except, if possible, being more impudent, and generally in low life, frequenters of the Garden in order to pick up a dinner, and the Park to get a bottle.
[UK]G.A. Stevens Adventures of a Speculist II 247: Everybody knows I never loves to spunge upon my friends.
[UK]B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) I 270: Mogicon and myself both in extasy at having an opportunity of spunging on a citizen.
[UK]Austen Mansfield Park (1926) 106: ‘What else have you been spunging?’ [...] ‘Spunging, my dear! It is nothing but four of those beautiful pheasant’s eggs.’.
[US]J.K. Paulding John Bull in America 118: So he fell upon me [...] under the pretence that I had spunged upon him, as he called it.
[UK]Morn. Post 16 Feb. 4/2: He complained of his ‘sponging’.
[UK]Lytton Paul Clifford I 74: I’ll teach you, you blood-sucker (i.e. parasite) to spunge upon those as has expectations!
[US]Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 15 Mar. 1/2: A supper ticket which he sponged at the Batchelor’s Ball.
[US]Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 3 Dec. n.p.: I have been accused of spunging shillings out of those who visit my house.
[UK]Thackeray Book of Snobs (1889) 89: Bull passes the season in London, sponging for dinners, and sleeping in a garret near his Club.
[US]T. Haliburton Sam Slick’s Wise Saws I 113: I’ll tell you what the lazy spongin’ vagabond wants, he is fishin’ for a supper to eat.
[Ind]Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Dec. 139/2: Indians at home being always expected to spunge on Relations!!!
[US]N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 12 Oct. 6/3: Why don’t Henry Clarke, the loafer and bummer, enlist and not sponge his living out of his poor old mother.
[UK]Liverpool Dly Post 20 Sept. 7/4: She’s a woman as I don’t hold with, bein’ one as will [...] sponge on any one.
[UK]Sl. Dict. 306: Spunge a mean, paltry fellow, sometimes called a spunger.
[UK]G. Lander Little Gerty III ii: pat: I shall find means to live. mick: By sponging on everybody you meet, I suppose.
[Aus]Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 8: Spunge - To hang upon another’s expense meanly.
[UK]Henley & Stevenson Admiral Guinea III ii: Who’s he to be wallowing in gold, when a better man is groping crusts in the gutter and spunging for rum?
[UK]J. Runciman Chequers 31: The sponger spares nobody.
[UK]E.W. Rogers [perf. Vesta Tilley] My Friend the Major 🎵 Sponges, lounges, mashes, dashes, / At the ladies tips a wink.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 13 Jan. 4/2: A galaxy of other ennobled ladies, who ought to know better than to ‘sponge’ on the State.

2. (US Und.) to steal.

[US]N.Y. Daily Trib. 9 July 3/1: A fellow named William Cooney [was] charged with having ‘sponged’ a watch from an emigrant named Dennis Dumack.

3. for a prostitute to place a hollow sponge inside the mouth of the vagina as protection against disease and accidental pregnancy.

[US]N. Heard Howard Street 17: I been spongin’ tricks for six months now.