sponge
     n 1: a porous mass of interlacing fibers the forms the internal
          skeleton of various marine animals and usable to absorb
          water or any porous rubber or cellulose product
          similarly used
     2: someone able to acquire new knowledge and skills rapidly and
        easily; "she soaks up foreign languages like a sponge"
        [syn: {quick study}]
     3: a follower who hangs around a host (without benefit to the
        host) in hope of gain or advantage [syn: {leech}, {parasite},
         {sponger}]
     4: primitive multicellular marine animal whose porous body is
        supported by a fibrous skeletal framework; usually occurs
        in sessile colonies [syn: {poriferan}, {parazoan}]
     v 1: wipe with a sponge, so as to clean or moisten
     2: ask for and get free; be a parasite [syn: {mooch}, {bum}, {cadge},
         {grub}]
     3: erase with a sponge; as of words on a blackboard
     4: soak up with a sponge
     5: gather sponges, in the ocean
Source: WordNet® 2.0

sponge n. [Unix] A special case of a {filter} that reads its entire
   input before writing any output; the canonical example is a sort
   utility. Unlike most filters, a sponge can conveniently overwrite the
   input file with the output data stream. If a file system has versioning
   (as ITS did and VMS does now) the sponge/filter distinction loses its
   usefulness, because directing filter output would just write a new
   version. See also {slurp}.


Source: The Jargon File