spate
[speyt]
- a sudden, almost overwhelming, outpouring: a spate of angry words.
- British.
- a flood or inundation.
- a river flooding its banks.
- a sudden or heavy rainstorm.
Show More
Origin of spate
1400–50; late Middle English (north) < ?
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for spate
Contemporary Examples
In cases such as a spate of recent suicides by adolescents who were bullied on Facebook, the perpetrators were well known.
Outed Madeleine McCann Troll Kills Herself. But Millions Live On Online.Barbie Latza Nadeau
October 6, 2014
She also blasted the spate of “Katherine Heigl-y type things where women…have no reason to exist other than to get a guy.”
‘Clueless’: How the Greatest Clique of the ‘90s Transformed Into A Shakespearean TragedyMarlow Stern
May 30, 2014
This was followed in 2012 by a spate of media articles in the US trying to grab attention using similar headlines.
The protests are also a bonanza for the European Union, which has been suffering from a spate of bad PR recently.
Kenya invaded Somalia in response to a spate of kidnappings in the fall of 2011.
Historical Examples
His joy welled up and overflowed in him as overflows a river in time of spate.
St. Martin's SummerRafael Sabatini
A look from Spate silenced him, but the President had not caught the slip.
In a Little TownRupert Hughes
"Not but what Wakefield is enterprising," Spate added, anxiously.
In a Little TownRupert Hughes
Spate could rise to an emergency; the other committeemen thanked him with their eyes.
In a Little TownRupert Hughes
It was about the first day of October, and we had enjoyed a “spate.”
Angling SketchesAndrew Lang
spate
- a fast flow, rush, or outpouringa spate of words
- mainly British a sudden floodthe rivers were in spate
- mainly British a sudden heavy downpour
Show More
Word Origin
C15 (Northern and Scottish): of unknown origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for spate
n.
early 15c., originally Scottish and northern English, "a sudden flood, especially one caused by heavy rains or a snowmelt," of unknown origin. Perhaps from Old French espoit "flood," from Dutch spuiten "to flow, spout;" related to spout. Figurative sense of "unusual quantity" is attested from 1610s.
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper