| 释义 |
spongy, a.|ˈspʌndʒɪ|
Forms: α. 6–9 spungy, 6 -ye, 6–7 -ie. β. 6–7 spongie, 7–9 spongey, 7– spongy.
[f. sponge n.1 + -y.]
1. Having a soft elastic or porous texture resembling that of a sponge; deficient in solidity or firmness, so as to be readily compressible:
a. Of flesh, animal tissue, etc., sometimes with special reference to morbid conditions.
α1539Elyot Cast. Helthe 31 b, The tounge is of a spungy & sanguine substance. 1545T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde 45 Leuing al the grosser part in y⊇ spungye body of the houpe⁓call. 1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 15 If the disease be a Kinde of spungie flesh. 1695J. Edwards Perfect. Script. 245 The lower part of the ear..is spungy and flexible. 1712S. Sewall Diary 4 Jan., Major Walley's Left foot is opened underneath, and found to be very hollow, and spungy.
fig.a1628F. Grevil Alaham ii. iii, The spungie hearts of men Their hollowes gladly fill with women's love.
β1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. (1658) 158 It hath in the tongue a spongy and mucous extremity. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) V. 250 The muscular, spongy flesh of the tongue. 1809Med. Jrnl. XXI. 339 The other parts..were very pulpy, soft, spongy, and broken down. 1843R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xvi. 192 His mouth became very sore,..his gums spongy. 1898Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 204 Islets of spongy tissue separate the individual nodules.
b. Of parts of plants, timber, etc.
α1589Pappe w. Hatchet C iv, Elders..being fullest of spungie pith, proue euer the driest kixes. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 506 The wood is of a spungie substance. 1710Whitworth Acc. Russia (1758) 135 Timber..cut in the spring after the sap is run up, which makes the wood spungy. 1769E. Bancroft Guiana 47 Their internal substance is white, spungy, and saponaceous. 1807Crabbe Birth Flattery 301 Where spungy rushes hide the plashy green.
β1578Lyte Dodoens 181 The roote is white and of a spongie substance. 1671Grew Anat. Pl. (1682) 47 This Inner Coat..is a very Spongy and Sappy body. 1784Cowper Task iii. 522 Then rise the tender germs, upstarting quick, And spreading wide their spongy lobes. 1842Loudon Suburban Hort. 182 The shoots there are generally more luxuriant and spongy. 1860Ruskin Mod. Paint. V. vi. vi. §4. 43 A root [of a tree], properly so called, is a fibre, spongy or absorbent at the extremity. 1884Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 410 Lamellar cavernous parenchyma.., which from this spongy character has also been called ‘spongy parenchyma’.
c. Of ground or soil, esp. through excess of moisture.
α1652Earl of Monmouth tr. Bentivoglio's Hist. Relat. 10 The scituation of all the other Provinces is low and spungie. 1677Lond. Gaz. No. 1224/3 The ground about the place being very spungy in wet weather. 1708J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 25 It must of necessity rise through the Spungy Earth. 1799Scotland Descr. (ed. 2) 16 The morasses, of which the soil is either a spungy turf, or a black consistent peat-earth. c1853Kingsley Misc. (1859) I. 151 The soft tread of..horse-hoofs upon the spungy vegetable soil.
β1732Ray's Disc. (ed. 4) 12 A spongey kind of Earth. 1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 793 Rotten spongy ground. 1818Shelley Marenghi xxiv, The coarse bulbs of iris-flowers he found Knotted in clumps under the spongy ground. 1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm I. 507 Where clay is..very spongy, tough, and wet. 1889F. Cowper Capt. of Wight 259 There is not a hole or a spongy place anywhere.
d. In miscellaneous applications.
1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme v. xx. 577 Neither must it [manchet bread] be made too light or spungie. 1672Petty Pol. Anat. 375 The art of making the excellent, thick, spungy, warm coverlets, seems to be lost. 1713Gay Rur. Sports 135 When floating Clouds their spongy Fleeces drain. 1716― Trivia i. 45 The Frieze's Spongy Nap is soaked with Rain. 1753Hanway Trav. v. lxix. (1762) I. 314 Their cloths are spungy, but they are thin, light, and soft. 1834Brit. Husb. I. 340 The ashes..produced from soft soap..will be found light and spongy. 1836–41Brande Chem. (ed. 5) 109 The rising of fluids in porous and spongy bodies.
e. Of suspension and braking systems in motor vehicles: deficient in firmness.
1952Fradzee & Bedell Automotive Maintenance & Trouble Shooting x. 396 A spongy pedal on hydraulic brake systems may be due to excessive clearance between the shoes and the drum. 1954I. Fleming Live & let Die xiii. 134 All the fun of driving had been taken out of them..with hydraulic-assisted steering and spongy suspension. 1962Which? Car Suppl. Oct. 123/1 The Fiat 1500..had one disconcerting point [sc. in its braking system]—the long pedal travel necessary, which always felt ‘spongy’ and gave the impression that there was less power available in the brakes than in fact was the case. 1967B. C. Macdonald Car Doctor A to Z iii. 19 (heading) Pedal has ‘spongy’ feel.
2. Of hard substances: Having an open porous structure resembling that of a sponge:
a. Of bones, spec. of certain bones of the skull.
1591Sylvester Du Bartas i. vi. 573 Whereby the moist Brain's spongy boan doth sup Sweet-smelling fumes. 1594T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 123 It is called by the phisicions the siue-bone, or otherwise (& that more properly) the spungy bone. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 401 A Splent is a spungy harde grissell or bone, growing fast on the inside of the shin-bone of a Horse. 1753Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. s.v. Bone, Bones..which have thin solid sides, and a thick intermediate spongy part. 1854Owen in Orr's Circ. Sci., Org. Nat. I. 166 Most of the bones of fishes are solid or spongy in their interior. 1876Quain's Anat. (ed. 8) I. 53 The inferior turbinated, maxillo-turbinal, or spongy bone, is a slender lamina, attached [etc.].
b. Of stone, ice, minerals, etc.
1615G. Sandys Trav. 22 The walls..consisting of great square stone, hard, blacke, and spongie. 1694Marten's Voy. Spitzbergen in Acc. Sev. Voy. II. 44 This Ice becometh very spungy by the dashing of the Sea. 1796Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 13 When it [silex] is exceedingly comminuted,..it is light and spungy. 1800tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 333 Hence those tender calcareous, cellular stones, and perhaps also the spungy tufs. 1834L. Ritchie Wand. by Seine 74 Such stones as were most spungy and defective, and, of course, most easily cut. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. II. xxiii. 231 The falling of some of the party through the spongy ice.
c. Of metals, esp. platinum.
1807T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 64 Spongy alumina; when exposed to a red heat, loses 0·58 parts of its weight. 1827Faraday Chem. Manip. xiv. (1842) 314 Spongy platina..causes the union of oxygen and oxide of carbon at common temperatures. 1849D. Campbell Inorg. Chem. 246 [This] leaves the metal, in a highly divided state, as a greyish-black powder, and known as spongy platinum. 1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. 845/2 The production of spongy platinum..is a task more easy in appearance than in reality.
3. a. Resembling a sponge in respect of moisture or capacity for containing this.
1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iv. Handicrafts 759 With th' other hand he gripes and wringeth forth The spungy Globe of th' execrable Earth. 1602Marston Ant. & Mel. iv, Even this brinish marsh Shall squeaze out teares from out his spungy cheekes. 1611Shakes. Cymb. iv. ii. 349, I saw..the Roman Eagle wing'd From the spungy South, to this part of the West. 1659S. Titus Killing no Murder 5 Had not his Highnes had a faculty to be fluent in his teares..: Had he not had spungie eyes [etc.]. 1872Echo 10 Aug., After plenty of rain, with leaden water and a dismal, spongy look everywhere.
fig.1599B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. Prol., With a gripe, [to] Crush out the humour of such spongie soules. 1611Cotgr. s.v. Mer, When Princes doe squeeze out of their spungie Officers the moisture which they haue purloyned from them.
b. Resembling a sponge in absorptive qualities; absorbent. Chiefly fig.
1605Shakes. Macb. i. vii. 71 What [can we] not put vpon His spungie Officers? 1606― Tr. & Cr. ii. ii. 12 There is no Lady..More spungie, to sucke in the sense of Feare. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 438 Oft whole sheets descend of slucy Rain, Suck'd by the spongy Clouds from off the Main.
c. Of the nature or character of a sponger or parasite; = sponging ppl. a.
1602Marston Ant. & Mel. iv, Blowne up with the flattering puffes Of spungy sycophants.
4. fig. Deficient in substance or solidity.
1603Florio Montaigne iii. v. 524 The wordes: no longer windie or spungie, but of fleshe and bone. 1665J. Webb Stone-Heng (1725) 82 To set a petty Gloss upon a spungy Conjecture. 1680H. More Apocal. Apoc. 273 R. H. in his answer..is plainly not so much copious as loose and spungy, and not at all solid. 1829Best Pers. & Lit. Mem. 171 The puffy, spungy,..washy, style that prevails at the present day. 1896St. James's Gaz. 6 Jan. 4/2 Mr. Olney's English is, as usual, rather spongy.
5. Of texture or other qualities: Resembling that of a sponge.
1611Cotgr., Spongiosité,..a spungie lightnesse. 1633P. Fletcher Purple Isl. iv. xxvii, [The lungs] Built of a lighter frame, and spungie mold. 1733W. Ellis Chiltern & Vale Farm. 84 Hollow, spungy Texture of Parts. 1765A. Dickson Treat. Agric. (ed. 2) 69 The soil may be of a spungy nature. 1800Med. Jrnl. III. 199 The sore had an ugly, spungy aspect. 1827Faraday Chem. Manip. xiv. (1842) 315 The platina in the spongy state. 1860Tyndall Glac. ii. xxvi. 372 The ice on which the dirt-bands rest..appears to be of a spongier character.
fig.1865Geo. Eliot Ess. (1884) 202 A spongy texture of mind that gravitates strongly to nothing.
6. Resembling that pressed from a sponge.
1605G. Ellis Lament. Lost Sheep lxxvii, That spungy moysture, that in deadly thrall For thy pale lips the sonnes of men thought meete. a1864Hawthorne Amer. Note-bks. (1879) II. 191 With a spongy moisture diffused through the atmosphere.
7. Comb., as spongy-flowered, spongy-footed, spongy-looking, spongy-wet, spongy-wooded adjs.
1825Greenhouse Comp. II. 26 A spongy-wooded green⁓house shrub. 1829Loudon Encycl. Plants (1836) 600 Adlumia cirrhosa; spongy-flower'd. 1835Willis Pencillings II. lv. 130 The small donkey..pricking back his long ears as if he were counting his spongy-footed followers. 1855Tennyson To Rev. F. D. Maurice xi, The lawn as yet Is hoar with rime, or spongy-wet. 1870H. A. Nicholson Man. Zool. xiv. (1875) 143 It forms spongy-looking, orange-coloured crusts. |