Adjacent Words

spate definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

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]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English Date: 15th century 1. freshet, flood 2. a. a large number or amount <a spate of books on gardening> b. a sudden or strong outburst ; rush <a spate of anger>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(spates) A spate of things, especially unpleasant things, is a large number of them that happen or appear within a short period of time. ...the recent spate of attacks on horses. = series N-COUNT: usu sing, usu N of n

Moby Thesaurus

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