Loof n. Bot. The spongelike fibers of the fruit of a cucurbitaceous plant (Luffa Aegyptiaca); called also vegetable sponge.


 Sponge n.  [Formerly written also spunge.]
 1. Zool. Any one of numerous species of Spongiae, or Porifera. See Illust. and Note under Spongiae.
 2. The elastic fibrous skeleton of many species of horny Spongiae (Keratosa), used for many purposes, especially the varieties of the genus Spongia.  The most valuable sponges are found in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and on the coasts of Florida and the West Indies.
 3. Fig.: One who lives upon others; a pertinacious and indolent dependent; a parasite; a sponger.
 4. Any spongelike substance. Specifically: (a) 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. (b) Iron from the puddling furnace, in a pasty condition. (c) Iron ore, in masses, reduced but not melted or worked.
 5. Gun. 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.
 6. Far. The extremity, or point, of a horseshoe, answering to the heel.
 Bath sponge, any one of several varieties of coarse commercial sponges, especially Spongia equina.
 Cup sponge, a toilet sponge growing in a cup-shaped form.
 Glass sponge. See Glass-sponge, in the Vocabulary.
 Glove sponge, a variety of commercial sponge (Spongia officinalis, variety tubulifera), having very fine fibers, native of Florida, and the West Indies.
 Grass sponge, any one of several varieties of coarse commercial sponges having the surface irregularly tufted, as Spongia graminea, and Spongia equina, variety cerebriformis, of Florida and the West Indies.
 Horse sponge, a coarse commercial sponge, especially Spongia equina.
 Platinum sponge. Chem. See under Platinum.
 Pyrotechnical sponge, a substance made of mushrooms or fungi, which are boiled in water, dried, and beaten, then put in a strong lye prepared with saltpeter, and again dried in an oven. This makes the black match, or tinder, brought from Germany.
 Sheep's-wool sponge, a fine and durable commercial sponge (Spongia equina, variety gossypina) found in Florida and the West Indies. The surface is covered with larger and smaller tufts, having the oscula between them.
 Sponge cake, a kind of sweet cake which is light and spongy.
 Sponge lead, or Spongy lead Chem., metallic lead brought to a spongy form by reduction of lead salts, or by compressing finely divided lead; -- used in secondary batteries and otherwise.
 Sponge tree Bot., a tropical leguminous tree (Acacia Farnesiana), with deliciously fragrant flowers, which are used in perfumery.
 Toilet sponge, a very fine and superior variety of Mediterranean sponge (Spongia officinalis, variety Mediterranea); -- called also Turkish sponge.
 To set a sponge Cookery, to leaven a small mass of flour, to be used in leavening a larger quantity.
 To throw up the sponge, to give up a contest; to acknowledge defeat; -- from a custom of the prize ring, the person employed to sponge a pugilist between rounds throwing his sponge in the air in token of defeat; -- now, throw in the towel is more common, and has the same origin and meaning. [Cant or Slang] “He was too brave a man to throw up the sponge to fate.” --Lowell.
 Vegetable sponge. Bot. See Loof.
 Velvet sponge, a fine, soft commercial sponge (Spongia equina, variety meandriniformis) found in Florida and the West Indies.
 Vitreous sponge. See Glass-sponge.
 Yellow sponge, a common and valuable commercial sponge (Spongia agaricina, variety corlosia) found in Florida and the West Indies.


 Veg·e·ta·ble a.
 1. Of or pertaining to plants; having the nature of, or produced by, plants; as, a vegetable nature; vegetable growths, juices, etc.
 Blooming ambrosial fruit
 Of vegetable gold.   --Milton.
 2. Consisting of, or comprising, plants; as, the vegetable kingdom.
 Vegetable alkali Chem., an alkaloid.
 Vegetable brimstone. Bot. See Vegetable sulphur, below.
 Vegetable butter Bot., a name of several kinds of concrete vegetable oil; as that produced by the Indian butter tree, the African shea tree, and the Pentadesma butyracea, a tree of the order Guttiferae, also African. Still another kind is pressed from the seeds of cocoa (Theobroma).
 Vegetable flannel, a textile material, manufactured in Germany from pine-needle wool, a down or fiber obtained from the leaves of the Pinus sylvestris.
 Vegetable ivory. See Ivory nut, under Ivory.
 Vegetable jelly. See Pectin.
 Vegetable kingdom. Nat. Hist. See the last Phrase, below.
 Vegetable leather. (a) Bot. A shrubby West Indian spurge (Euphorbia punicea), with leathery foliage and crimson bracts. (b) See Vegetable leather, under Leather.
 Vegetable marrow Bot., an egg-shaped gourd, commonly eight to ten inches long.  It is noted for the very tender quality of its flesh, and is a favorite culinary vegetable in England.  It has been said to be of Persian origin, but is now thought to have been derived from a form of the American pumpkin.
 Vegetable oyster Bot., the oyster plant. See under Oyster.
 Vegetable parchment, papyrine.
 Vegetable sheep Bot., a white woolly plant (Raoulia eximia) of New Zealand, which grows in the form of large fleecy cushions on the mountains.
 Vegetable silk, a cottonlike, fibrous material obtained from the coating of the seeds of a Brazilian tree (Chorisia speciosa).  It is used for various purposes, as for stuffing cushions, and the like, but is incapable of being spun on account of a want of cohesion among the fibers.
 Vegetable sponge. See 1st Loof.
 Vegetable sulphur, the fine and highly inflammable spores of the club moss (Lycopodium clavatum); witch meal.
 Vegetable tallow, a substance resembling tallow, obtained from various plants; as, Chinese vegetable tallow, obtained from the seeds of the tallow tree. Indian vegetable tallow is a name sometimes given to piney tallow.
 Vegetable wax, a waxy excretion on the leaves or fruits of certain plants, as the bayberry.
 Vegetable kingdom Nat. Hist., that primary division of living things which includes all plants. The classes of the vegetable kingdom have been grouped differently by various botanists. The following is one of the best of the many arrangements of the principal subdivisions.
 I. Phaenogamia (called also Phanerogamia). Plants having distinct flowers and true seeds. { 1. Dicotyledons (called also Exogens). -- Seeds with two or more cotyledons.  Stems with the pith, woody fiber, and bark concentrically arranged.  Divided into two subclasses: Angiosperms, having the woody fiber interspersed with dotted or annular ducts, and the seeds contained in a true ovary; Gymnosperms, having few or no ducts in the woody fiber, and the seeds naked.  2. Monocotyledons (called also Endogens). -- Seeds with single cotyledon. Stems with slender bundles of woody fiber not concentrically arranged, and with no true bark.}
 II. Cryptogamia. Plants without true flowers, and reproduced by minute spores of various kinds, or by simple cell division. { 1. Acrogens. -- Plants usually with distinct stems and leaves, existing in two alternate conditions, one of which is nonsexual and sporophoric, the other sexual and oophoric.  Divided into Vascular Acrogens, or Pteridophyta, having the sporophoric plant conspicuous and consisting partly of vascular tissue, as in Ferns, Lycopods, and Equiseta, and Cellular Acrogens, or Bryophyta, having the sexual plant most conspicuous, but destitute of vascular tissue, as in Mosses and Scale Mosses. 2. Thallogens. -- Plants without distinct stem and leaves, consisting of a simple or branched mass of cellular tissue, or reduced to a single cell.  Reproduction effected variously. Divided into Algae, which contain chlorophyll or its equivalent, and which live upon air and water, and Fungi, which contain no chlorophyll, and live on organic matter. (Lichens are now believed to be fungi parasitic on included algae.}
 Note: ☞ Many botanists divide the Phaenogamia primarily into Gymnosperms and Angiosperms, and the latter into Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons. Others consider Pteridophyta and Bryophyta to be separate classes. Thallogens are variously divided by different writers, and the places for diatoms, slime molds, and stoneworts are altogether uncertain.
    For definitions, see these names in the Vocabulary.


 vegetable sponge
      n : the bathroom loofah [syn: loofah, Luffa cylindrica]