A workman employed to collect sponges.

Roget 767: petitioner, solicitor, applicant; suppliant, supplicant; suitor, candidate, claimant, postulant, aspirant, competitor, bidder; place hunter, pot hunter; prizer^†; seeker.    beggar, mendicant, moocher, panhandler, freeloader, sponger, mumper^†, sturdy beggar, cadger; hotel runner, runner, steerer [U.S.], tout, touter^†.    [poor person] pauper, homeless person, hobo, bum, tramp, bindle stiff, bo, knight of the road (poverty) 804; hippie, flower child; hard core unemployed; welfare client, welfare case.    canvasser, bagman etc. 758; salesman.    ... show more

Dutch: klaploper

A follower who hangs around a host (without benefit to the host) in hope of gain or advantage.

synonyms: leech, parasite, sponge.

Roget 886: servility; slavery etc. (subjection) 749; obsequiousness etc. adj.; subserviency; abasement; prostration, prosternation^†; genuflection etc. (worship) 990; fawning etc. v.; tuft-hunting, timeserving^†, flunkeyism^†; sycophancy etc. (flattery) 933; humility etc. 879.    sycophant, parasite; toad, toady, toad-eater; tufthunter^†; snob, flunky, flunkey, yes-man, lapdog, spaniel, lickspittle, smell-feast, Graeculus esuriens [Lat.], hanger on, cavaliere servente [It], led captain, carpet knight; timeserver, fortune hunter, Vicar of Bray, Sir-Pertinax, Max Sycophant, pickthank^†; flatterer etc. 935; doer of dirty work; ame damnee [Fr.], tool; reptile; slave etc. (servant) 746; courtier; beat [Slang], dead beat [Slang], doughface [U.S.], heeler [U.S.], homme de cour [Fr.], sponger, sucker [Slang], tagtail^†, truckler.    ... show more

Dutch: bietser, klaploper, parasiet, uitvreter
Polish: pijawka, krwiopijca