Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A victualing-house or tavern where persons arrested for debt were kept by a bailiff for twenty-four hours before being lodged in prison, in order that their friends might have an opportunity of settling the debt.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun historical A place of temporary
confinement fordebtors , kept by abailiff , where debtors weresponged of all money they had on themselves, before being transferred to debtor's prison.
Etymologies
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Examples
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He had made himself much liked in the sponging-house, and
The Newcomes 2006
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He was taken to the sponging-house, and it was there imparted to him that he had better send for two things — first of all for money, which was by far the more desirable of the two; and secondly, for bail, which even if forthcoming was represented as being at best but a dubious advantage.
The Three Clerks 2004
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I was not much shocked at this adventure, which, indeed, put an end to a state of horrible expectation: but I refused to go to a sponging-house, where I heard there was nothing but the most flagrant imposition: and, a coach being called, was carried to the Marshalsea, attended by a bailiff and his follower, who were very much disappointed and chagrined at my resolution.
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And away the two walked together to a sponging-house in Cursitor
The Three Clerks 2004
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This for no other reason than because folks go easier out of a church than out of a sponging-house, and because they could not have our company when they would.
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002
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This for no other reason than because folks go easier out of a church than out of a sponging-house, and because they could not have our company when they would.
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002
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We have besides in it many varieties of English life, -- lords, clergymen, officers; Vauxhall and the masquerade; the sponging-house and its inmates, debtors and criminals, -- all as Fielding saw and knew them.
English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History Designed as a Manual of Instruction Henry Coppee
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When you extricated me from that cursed sponging-house.
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He luxuriates in locking up the Frank in a sponging-house; he charges him for the "Semitic Element," and sticks it on to the chop an sherry.
Mr. Punch`s history of modern England, Volume I -- 1841-1857 Charles Larcom 1921
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Why, otherwise, had she come to the sponging-house?
Richard Carvel — Volume 05 Winston Churchill 1909
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