bath sponge vs flannel

bath sponge

noun
  • A sponge, made from any material, that is used for cleaning the body while bathing. 

  • A commercially used species of sponge (porifer, invertebrate of the phylum Porifera) found throughout the Mediterranean Sea, Spongia officinalis. 

flannel

noun
  • A washcloth. 

  • Soothing, plausible untruth or half-truth; claptrap. 

  • A soft cloth material originally woven from wool, today often combined with cotton or synthetic fibers. 

  • A flannel shirt. 

verb
  • To flatter; to suck up to. 

  • To wrap in flannel. 

  • To waffle or prevaricate. 

  • To rub with a flannel. 

adj
  • Made of flannel. 

How often have the words bath sponge and flannel occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )