different between clough vs sponge

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English clough, clow, clogh, Old English *cl?h, from Proto-Germanic *klanhaz, *klanh? (“cleft, sluice, abyss”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Scots cleuch (“gorge; ravine”), Old High German kl?h (in placenames), Old High German klingo, klinga (“brook, cataract, gulf, rapids”). Perhaps conflated or influenced by Old Norse klofi (“a cleft or rift in a hill, ravine”); compare Dutch kloof (“a slit, crevice, chink”). See also cling, clove.

Alternative forms

• cleugh, cleuch (Scotland)
• cleugh (Northumbria)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl?f/, /kla?/

Noun

clough (plural cloughs)

1. (Northern England, US) A narrow valley; a cleft in a hillside; a ravine, glen, or gorge.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)

2. A sluice used in returning water to a channel after depositing its sediment on the flooded land.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

3. A cliff; a rocky precipice.
4. (dialectal) The cleft or fork of a tree; crotch.
5. (dialectal) A wood; weald.

Derived terms

• Howden Clough

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Alternative forms

• cloff

Pronunciation

Noun

clough (plural cloughs)

1. Formerly an allowance of two pounds in every three hundredweight after the tare and tret are subtracted; now used only in a general sense, of small deductions from the original weight.

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “clough”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• clough in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Etymology

From Old English spunge, taken from Latin spongia, from Ancient Greek ??????? (spongiá), related to ??????? (spóngos).

Pronunciation

• enPR: sp?nj, IPA^(key): /sp?nd??/
• Rhymes: -?nd?

Noun

sponge (countable and uncountable, plural sponges)

1. (countable) Any of various marine invertebrates, mostly of the phylum Porifera, that have a porous skeleton often of silica.

   Synonyms: sea sponge, bath sponge, poriferan, porifer

2. (countable) A piece of porous material used for washing (originally made from the invertebrates, now often made of plastic).

   Synonym: bath sponge
3. (uncountable) A porous material such as sponges consist of.
4. (informal) A heavy drinker.

   Synonyms: souse, swill-pot; see also Thesaurus:drunkard

5. (countable, uncountable) A type of light cake.

   Synonym: sponge cake

6. (countable, uncountable, Britain) A type of steamed pudding.

   Synonym: sponge pudding

7. (slang) A person who takes advantage of the generosity of others (abstractly imagined to absorb or soak up the money or efforts of others like a sponge).

   Synonyms: freeloader, sponger; see also Thesaurus:scrounger

8. (countable) A form of contraception that is inserted vaginally; a contraceptive sponge.
9. Any sponge-like substance.
   1. (baking) Dough before it is kneaded and formed into loaves, and after it is converted into a light, spongy mass by the agency of the yeast or leaven.
   2. Iron from the puddling furnace, in a pasty condition.
   3. Iron ore, in masses, reduced but not melted or worked.
10. A mop for cleaning the bore of a cannon after a discharge. It consists of a cylinder of wood, covered with sheepskin with the wool on, or cloth with a heavy looped nap, and having a handle, or staff.
11. The extremity, or point, of a horseshoe, corresponding to the heel.
12. (slang) A nuclear power plant worker routinely exposed to radiation.

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Hindi: ????? (spañj)
• ? Japanese: ???? (suponji)
• ? Korean: ??? (seupeonji)
• ? Pashto: ????? (spanj)
• ? Welsh: spynj

Translations

See also

• foam

Verb

sponge (third-person singular simple present sponges, present participle sponging, simple past and past participle sponged)

1. (intransitive, slang) To take advantage of the kindness of others.

2. (transitive, intransitive with on or upon) To get by imposition; to scrounge.

   Synonym: blag

   • July 17 1735, Jonathan Swift, letter to Lord Ornery

     I am an utter stranger to the persons and places, except when half a score come to sponge on me every Sunday evening

3. (transitive) To deprive (somebody) of something by imposition.

   • How came such multitudes of our nation […] to be sponged of their plate and their money?

4. To clean, soak up, or dab with a sponge.
5. To suck in, or imbibe, like a sponge.
6. To wipe out with a sponge, as letters or writing; to efface; to destroy all trace of.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     Lett the eyes which have looked on Idols, sponge out their unlawfull acts

7. (intransitive, baking) To be converted, as dough, into a light, spongy mass by the agency of yeast or leaven.
8. (marine biology, of dolphins) To use a piece of wild sponge as a tool when foraging for food.

Translations

Further reading

• sponge on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• pengos, peng?s