sponge up vs soak up

sponge up and soak up both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
sponge up	No	No	Yes	No
soak up	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, soak up is a hypernym of sponge up; that is, soak up is a word with a broader meaning than sponge up:

Other hypernyms of sponge up include absorb, draw, imbibe, sop up, suck, suck up, take in, take up.

sponge up (verb)	soak up (verb)
absorb as if with a sponge	devote (oneself) fully to
	take in, also metaphorically