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Spate   /speɪt/   Listen
Spate

noun
1.
(often followed by 'of') a large number or amount or extent.  Synonyms: 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, stack, tidy sum, wad.  "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"
2.
A sudden forceful flow.  Synonyms: rush, surge, upsurge.
3.
The occurrence of a water flow resulting from sudden rain or melting snow.  Synonym: freshet.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Spate" Quotes from Famous Books



... half-hearted conversation on trout flies, and as we approached "the American" I was explaining the deadly nature of the Red Palmer after a spate and the advisability of including Greenwell's Glory on the same cast. Unfortunately, as we passed our man there were three other people coming towards us, and he was gazing over the top of the carriage with the same dreaming look that had, according to Dennis, deceived me before. But we were hardly ...
— The Mystery of the Green Ray • William Le Queux

... at twelve o'clock, after which time no nets are worked till the Sabbath is past, are found and taken on the following Monday near St Boswell's—a distance, as the river winds, of about forty miles. This I have frequently ascertained by experience. When the strength of the current in a spate is considered, and also the sinuous course a salmon must take in order to avoid the strong rapids, their power of swimming must ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine—Vol. 54, No. 333, July 1843 • Various

... fecht ower the Confession noo, and laist Sabbath's sermon, in the Kildrummie train, till it's clean reediklus. That's drammin', and when they've hed a year or twa at that they hae their first spatie (spate is a river flood), and that gies them a bit fricht. But aff they set again, and then comes anither spatie, and the doctor hes tae bring them roond. They ca' (drive) cannie for a year or sae, but the feein' market puts the feenishin' titch. ...
— Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush • Ian Maclaren

... hours than ordinarily happened in a couple of months. The big trouble was that some of it was, doubtless, completely unconnected with the work of Malone's psychological individual. It was equally certain that some of it wasn't; no normal workings of chance could account for the spate of resignations, deaths, arrests of high officials, freak accidents and everything else he'd ...
— Occasion for Disaster • Gordon Randall Garrett

... bridge was visible. I commandeered a man from the first hut we came to, and tried by signs to make him understand that he was to carry the lady across the river; but, luckily, just as we reached the bank of what was a very nasty-looking stream in full spate, the liberated tonga overtook us, and Jane was bundled into it, while we three men waded. The stream was strong and up to our knees, and level with the tonga floor, and the horses getting frightened began to jib. Hill seized ...
— A Holiday in the Happy Valley with Pen and Pencil • T. R. Swinburne

... were two of the initiations that had come, with the swiftness of the spate in Alpine valleys at the melting of the snow, upon Michael; his own liberty, namely, and this new sense of music. He had groped, he felt now, like a blind man in that direction, guided only by his instinct, and on a sudden the scales had fallen from his eyes, and he knew that his instinct ...
— Michael • E. F. Benson

... Achilles heeded not, in fierce flood the river up-rose against him, sweeping the slain before it, and in furious spate seeking to destroy Achilles. But as its waves smote against his shield, Achilles grasped a tall elm, and uprooting it, cast it into the river to dam the torrent. For the moment only was the angry river stayed. In fear did Achilles flee across the plain, ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 3 (of 12) - Classic Tales And Old-Fashioned Stories • Various

... in spate? He must ford it or swim. Has the rain wrecked the road? He must climb by the cliff. Does the tempest cry "Halt"? What are tempests to him? The Service admits not a "but" or and "if." While the breath's in his mouth, ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling



Words linked to "Spate" :   flow, inundation, deluge, debris storm, flood, large indefinite quantity, haymow, debris surge, torrent, onrush, large indefinite amount, flowing



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