Green’s Dictionary of Slang

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.

1669		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.
1680		‘The Poet’s Dream’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1893) VII:1 13: Those spunging pimps the house attends.
1696		J. Dunton Night-Walker Sept. 17: Perceiving that his Pockets were always well-lin’d, he thought him a fit Person to spunge upon.
1709		‘Phoebe Crackenthorpe’ Female Tatler (1992) (35) 84: You will find him [...] gnawing a hard crust, and sponging his liquor for want of ready rhino.
1727		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].
1749		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?’.
1759		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.
1770		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.
1788		G.A. Stevens Adventures of a Speculist II 247: Everybody knows I never loves to spunge upon my friends.
1809		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.
1814		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.’.
1825		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.
1829		Morn. Post 16 Feb. 4/2: He complained of his ‘sponging’.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford I 74: I’ll teach you, you blood-sucker (i.e. parasite) to spunge upon those as has expectations!
1834		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 15 Mar. 1/2: A supper ticket which he sponged at the Batchelor’s Ball.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 3 Dec. n.p.: I have been accused of spunging shillings out of those who visit my house.
1846–48		Thackeray Book of Snobs (1889) 89: Bull passes the season in London, sponging for dinners, and sleeping in a garret near his Club.
1853		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.
1855		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Dec. 139/2: Indians at home being always expected to spunge on Relations!!!
1861		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.
1866		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.
1873		Sl. Dict. 306: Spunge a mean, paltry fellow, sometimes called a spunger.
1876		G. Lander Little Gerty III ii: pat: I shall find means to live. mick: By sponging on everybody you meet, I suppose.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 8: Spunge - To hang upon another’s expense meanly.
1884		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?
1888		J. Runciman Chequers 31: The sponger spares nobody.
1894		E.W. Rogers [perf. Vesta Tilley] My Friend the Major 🎵 Sponges, lounges, mashes, dashes, / At the ladies tips a wink.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 13 Jan. 4/2: A galaxy of other ennobled ladies, who ought to know better than to ‘sponge’ on the State.
1919		Wodehouse ‘Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg’ in My Man Jeeves [ebook] ‘Thanks awfully, Bertie, but I’m not going to sponge on you’.

2. (US Und.) to steal.

1847

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.

1968

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