Spate

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Spate \Spate\, n. [Of Celtic origin; cf. Ir. speid.]
     A river flood; an overflow or inundation. --Burns.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Gareth in a showerful spring
           Stared at the spate.                     --Tennyson.


     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  spate
       n 1: (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent;
            "a batch of letters"; "a deal of trouble"; "a lot of
            money"; "he made a mint on the stock market"; "it must
            have cost plenty" [syn: {batch}, {deal}, {flock}, {good
            deal}, {great deal}, {hatful}, {heap}, {lot}, {mass}, {mess},
             {mickle}, {mint}, {muckle}, {peck}, {pile}, {plenty}, {pot},
             {quite a little}, {raft}, {sight}, {slew}, {stack}, {tidy
            sum}, {wad}, {whole lot}, {whole slew}]
       2: a sudden forceful flow [syn: {rush}, {surge}, {upsurge}]
       3: the occurrence of a water flow resulting from sudden rain or
          melting snow [syn: {freshet}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  258 Moby Thesaurus words for "spate":
     Niagara, abundance, acres, affluence, afflux, affluxion,
     ample sufficiency, ampleness, amplitude, army, asperse, avalanche,
     bags, barrels, batch, befoul, belch, bespatter, bespot, blacken,
     bonanza, bountifulness, bountiousness, brash, bumper crop, burst,
     burst of rain, bushel, cascade, cataclysm, cataract, cloudburst,
     cluster, cohue, concourse, confluence, conflux, considerable,
     copiousness, countlessness, course, crosscurrent, crowd, crush,
     current, deal, debouchment, defame, defluxion, deluge, denigrate,
     dissiliency, douse, downfall, downflow, downpour, drencher, drift,
     driftage, embarras de richesses, enough, eructation, eruption,
     extravagance, extravagancy, exuberance, fertility, flare-up, flock,
     flood, flooding, flow, flowing, fluency, flux, foison, fresh,
     freshet, full measure, fullness, galaxy, generosity, generousness,
     gobs, good deal, great abundance, great deal, great plenty, gush,
     gushing rain, heap, heaps, heavy rain, horde, host, inflow,
     inundation, jam, jet, landslide, lashings, lavishness, legion,
     liberality, liberalness, load, loads, lot, lots, luxuriance, mass,
     maximum, mess, mill run, millrace, mint, mob, money to burn,
     more than enough, mountain, much, multitude, myriad, myriads,
     numerousness, ocean, oceans, onrush, onset, onward course, oodles,
     opulence, opulency, outbreak, outburst, outflow, outflowing,
     outpouring, overabundance, overaccumulation, overbounteousness,
     overcopiousness, overdose, overflow, overlavishness,
     overluxuriance, overmeasure, overmuchness, overnumerousness,
     overplentifulness, overplenty, overpopulation, overprofusion,
     oversufficiency, oversupply, pack, panoply, peck, pile, piles,
     plash, plenitude, plenteousness, plentifulness, plenty, plethora,
     pot, pour, press, prevalence, prodigality, productiveness,
     profuseness, profusion, progression, quantities, quantity,
     quite a little, rabble, race, raft, rafts, rain, rainburst,
     rainspout, rainstorm, rapids, redundancy, repleteness, repletion,
     rich harvest, rich vein, richness, riot, riotousness, river, rout,
     ruck, run, rush, scads, scud, sea, series, set, shower, sight,
     slew, slews, slop, slosh, slur, smear, soaker, soaking rain,
     sparge, spew, spit, splatter, splosh, splurge, splutter, spout,
     spurt, spurtle, stack, stacks, stream, substantiality,
     substantialness, succession, superabundance, superfluity,
     superflux, surge, swash, teemingness, throng, tide, tidy sum, tons,
     torrent, torrent of rain, traduce, trend, undercurrent, undertow,
     volcan, volume, wad, wads, water flow, waterflood, waterspout,
     wealth, whole slew, world, worlds