sponged

Definition of spongednext
past tense of sponge
1
as in drank
to take in (something liquid) through small openings the ground quickly sponged up the much-needed rain

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2
as in begged
to live by relying on someone else's generosity or hospitality without sharing in the cost or responsibility she's been sponging off of her friends while she tries to land an entry-level job on Wall Street

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for sponged
Verb
  • In the study, people who drank between two and three daily cups of coffee or one or two cups of tea had lower subjective cognitive decline and performed better on cognitive tests.
    Helen Carefoot, Flow Space, 15 May 2026
  • This reductive view of the world—women things bad, men things good—is the mirror image of the worst excesses of 2010s Tumblr feminism, when introverted teenage girls posted hashtags like #KillAllMen and drank from mugs that read MALE TEARS.
    Helen Lewis, The Atlantic, 14 May 2026
Verb
  • According to Panettiere, her mother instantly begged for forgiveness and tried to have the charges dropped, but to no avail.
    Arushi Jacob, Variety, 19 May 2026
  • The customer also said that Santos begged her not to press charges.
    Penny Kmitt, CBS News, 18 May 2026
Verb
  • In fact, Musk sought to fold OpenAI into Tesla -- a move that would have absorbed the venture into a for-profit entity, lawyers for Altman said in a legal filing.
    Max Zahn, ABC News, 18 May 2026
  • The region has absorbed a decade of being discovered and come out intact.
    Melinda Sheckells, HollywoodReporter, 18 May 2026
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Sponged.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sponged. Accessed 20 May. 2026.

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