1. Production marine dont la substance, légère, élastique et très poreuse, absorbe les liquides dans lesquels on la plonge.
2. Produit analogue obtenu industriellement.
ETYM Old Fren. esponge, French éponge, Latin spongia, Greek. Related to Fungus, Spunk.
Any saclike simple invertebrate of the phylum Porifera, usually marine. A sponge has a hollow body, its cavity lined by cells bearing flagellae, whose whiplike movements keep water circulating, bringing in a stream of food particles. The body walls are strengthened with protein (as in the bath sponge) or small spikes of silica, or a framework of calcium carbonate.
1. A porous pad of rubber, cellulose, or sponge used as a cleaning tool.
2. A porous mass of interlacing fibers the forms the internal skeleton of various marine animals and usable to absorb water.
3. Primitive multicellular marine animal whose porous body is supported by a fibrous skeletal framework; usually occurs in sessile colonies; SYN. poriferan, parazoan.