SPONGER • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Sponger

... walking-beam was shot away. As the sponge of the after pivot gun was being inserted in the muzzle of the piece, the handle was cut in two by a shot from the enemy; half in prayer and half in despair at being unable to perform his duty, the sponger exclaimed, "Oh, Lord! how is the gun to be sponged?" He was much relieved when the quarter-gunner of his division handed him a spare sponge. This state of things could not last long; a shot from a rifled gun of one of the field batteries on the beach penetrated the steam-chest, ...

— Life of Rear Admiral John Randolph Tucker • James Henry Rochelle

... "A Tufayli?" So the Arab. Prov. (ii. 838) "More intrusive than Tufayl" (prob. the P.N. of a notorious sponger). The Badawin call "Warish" a man who sits down to meat unbidden and to drink Waghil; but townsfolk apply the latter ...

— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 4 • Richard F. Burton