spate

• POS: Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

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."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

spate, n.
1 a river-flood (the river is in spate).
2 a large or excessive amount (a spate of enquiries).

Etymology

ME, Sc. & N.Engl.: orig. unkn.

THESAURUS

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