spates

Noun

spate (countable and uncountable, plural spates)

1. (Scotland, countable) A (sudden) flood or inundation of water; specifically, a flood in or overflow of a river or other watercourse due to heavy rain or melting snow; (uncountable, archaic) flooding, inundation.
   • Thys Lepidium that Pliny & Paul [of Aegina] deſcribe⸝ groweth plentuouſly about the water ſyde that rynneth thorow Morpeth in Northumberland⸝ in ſuche places as great heapes of ſtones are caſten together wyth the myght of a great ſpat or flood.1562, Wylliam Turner [i.e., William Turner], “Of the Herbe Called Lepidium or Dittani”, in The Second Parte of Guilliam Turners Herball⸝ […], Cologne: […] Arnold Birckman, →OCLC, folio 35, recto
2. (Scotland, countable) A sudden heavy downpour of rain.
   • Doun comes a jaw o' droukin' rain / Upon their honours— / God sends a spate outower the plain, / Or mebbe thun'ers.[1887, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Blast—1875”, in Underwoods (in Scots), London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, book II (In Scots), page 101
3. (Scotland, countable, figuratively) A sudden increase or rush of something; a flood, an outburst, an outpouring.
   • Thy rural loves are nature's ſel; / Nae bombaſt ſpates o' nonſenſe ſwell; / Nae ſnap conceits, but that ſweet ſpell / O' witchin love, […]1869, Robert Burns, “Poem on Pastoral Poetry”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, volume III (Posthumous Poems), Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] James M‘Kie, →OCLC, page 45

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