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) 3.0 (2006) [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"; "see the
rest of the winners in our huge passel of photos"; "it must
have cost plenty"; "a slew of journalists"; "a wad of
money" [syn: {batch}, {deal}, {flock}, {good deal}, {great
deal}, {hatful}, {heap}, {lot}, {mass}, {mess}, {mickle},
{mint}, {mountain}, {muckle}, {passel}, {peck}, {pile},
{plenty}, {pot}, {quite a little}, {raft}, {sight}, {slew},
{spate}, {stack}, {tidy sum}, {wad}]
2: a sudden forceful flow [syn: {rush}, {spate}, {surge},
{upsurge}]
3: the occurrence of a water flow resulting from sudden rain or
melting snow [syn: {freshet}, {spate}]
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