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: a follower who hangs around in hope of gain or advantage

[syn: {leech}, {minion}, {parasite}]

3: 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

sponge

A special case of a {Unix} {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 {file 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}.

[{Jargon File}]

(1995-01-18)