sponging-house

noun

A place of temporary confinement for debtors, kept by a bailiff, where debtors were sponged of all money they had on themselves, before being transferred to debtor's prison.

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Meanings

nounsponging-house (plural sponging-houses)

plural sponging-houses · alternative archaic spunging-house

  1. historicalA place of temporary confinement for debtors, kept by a bailiff, where debtors were sponged of all money they had on themselves, before being transferred to debtor's prison.

    she perswaded the Creditors to send Two Bayliffs, who carry'd me to a Spunging-House in a very weak Condition […]

    1723, Charles Walker, Memoirs of Sally Salisbury, section VI
    1 more example

    '[…] Regard for a former servant of my own, who had since fallen into misfortune, carried me to visit him in a spunging-house, where he was confined for debt […]'

    1811, Jane Austen, chapter 31, in Sense and Sensibility
Cite this entry
APA

sponging-house. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sponging-house

MLA

“sponging-house.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sponging-house. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sponging-house,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sponging-house.

Source: sponging-house on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.