Sponge vs Starfish - What's the difference?

As nouns the difference between sponge and starfish

is that sponge is any of various marine invertebrates, mostly of the phylum Porifera, that have a porous skeleton often of silica while starfish is any of various asteroids or other echinoderms (not in fact fish) with usually five arms, many of which eat bivalves or corals by everting their stomach.

As a verb sponge

is to take advantage of the kindness of others.

sponge

English

("sponge" on Wikipedia)

Noun

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

(countable) A piece of porous material used for washing (originally made from the invertebrates, now often made of plastic).

* {{quote-book, year=1913, author=

, title=Lord Stranleigh Abroad , chapter=5 citation , passage=She removed Stranleigh’s coat with a dexterity that aroused his imagination. The elder woman returned with dressings and a sponge , which she placed on a chair.}}

(uncountable) A porous material such as sponges consist of.

(informal) A heavy drinker.

(countable, uncountable) A type of light cake; sponge cake.

(countable, uncountable, British) A type of steamed pudding.

(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).

(countable) A form of contraception that is inserted vaginally; a .

Any spongelike substance.

# 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.

# Iron from the puddling furnace, in a pasty condition.

# Iron ore, in masses, reduced but not melted or worked.

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.

The extremity, or point, of a horseshoe, answering to the heel.

Synonyms

* (marine invertebrate) sea sponge, bath sponge, poriferan, porifer * (piece of porous material used for washing) bath sponge * (light cake) sponge cake * (type of steamed pudding) sponge pudding * (person) freeloader, sponger

Derived terms

* breadcrumb sponge * demosponge * sea sponge * spongey * sponge bath * sponge cake

Verb

(spong)

(slang) To take advantage of the kindness of others.

* L'Estrange

The fly is an intruder, and a common smell-feast, that sponges upon other people's trenchers.

To get by imposition; to scrounge.

* , chapter=13

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“[…] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.}}

(Jonathan Swift)

To deprive (somebody) of something by imposition.

* South

How came such multitudes of our nation to be sponged of their plate and their money?

To clean, soak up, or dab with a sponge.

To suck in, or imbibe, like a sponge.

To wipe out with a sponge, as letters or writing; to efface; to destroy all trace of.

(Hooker)

To be converted, as dough, into a light, spongy mass by the agency of yeast or leaven.

Synonyms

* blag

starfish

English

(wikipedia starfish)

Noun

(en-noun)

Any of various asteroids or other echinoderms (not in fact fish) with usually five arms, many of which eat bivalves or corals by everting their stomach.

(vulgar, slang, usually in translations of Japanese pornography) an anus. See also chocolate starfish.

(obsolete) Any many-armed or tentacled sea invertebrate, whether cnidarian, echinoderm, or cephalopod.

* 1755 , , trans. Isaac Kimbler, Explanation of the Plate of Uncommon Star Fish, Extracted from the Natural History of Norway

But the largest of the star-fish' kind is that sea monster called kruken, kraken or krabben. [...] As this enormous sea-animal in all probability may be reckoned of the polype, or of the ' star-fish , kind, it seems that the parts which are seen rising at its pleasure, and are called arms, are properly the tentacula, or feeding instruments, called horns as well as arms.

Synonyms

* (various echinoderms) sea star, asteroid