sponson

Meanings

nounsponson (plural sponsons)

aeronauticsA projection from the side of an aircraft, watercraft, or land vehicle.
He and Gerald usually challenged the rollers in a sponson canoe when Gerald was there for the weekend; or, when Lansing came down, the two took long swims seaward or cruised about in Gerald's dory, clad in their swimming-suits ; and Selwyn's youth became renewed in a manner almost ridiculous,[…].
1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

verbsponson (third-person singular simple present sponsons, present participle sponsoning, simple past and past participle sponsoned)

present singular third person sponsons · participle present sponsoning · participle past sponsoned · past sponsoned · alternative sponsing

oftentransitiveaeronauticsTo mount on a projection on the side of a vessel.
The belted cruiser Pamiat Azova or Remembrance of Azoff, is 377 feet long. She is an improved Dmitri Dontskoi, and carries her two 8-inch guns in sponsoned barbettes on either broadside
1899, John Scott-Keltie, editor, Statesman's Year-Book 1899

Perhaps from expansion.

Cite this entry

APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

Source: sponson on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.