spate

noun

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.”

   “Arous'd by bluſtering vvinds an' ſpotting thovves, / In mony a torrent dovvn the ſnavv-broo rovves; / VVhile craſhing ice, borne on the roaring ſpeat, / Svveeps dams, an' mills, an' brigs, a' to the gate; […]”

   “The last tall son of Lot and Bellicent, / And tallest, Gareth, in a showerful spring / Stared at the spate. A slender-shafted Pine / Lost footing, fell, and so was whirled away.”

   “Scamander was indeed a great power for the Trojans; it was the great river of the country, […] His floods, however useful in time of war, would in time of peace do fearful damage. […] [H]e carried away, in sudden spates, many of the horses that were pastured on his banks.”

   “It [the Halladale river] receives the whole of its water-supply from a number of hill burns and several lochs of inconsiderable extent. it follows, therefore, that after rain the surplus water soon runs out, and the river soon dwindles down to an almost unfishable condition. […] An ordinary spate will not suffice to keep the river in good order for more than a couple of days.”

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.”

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, […]”

   “Here is a fine spate of work—a day diddled away, and nothing to show for it!”

   “He couldnae weel tell how—maybe it was the cauld to his feet—but it cam' in upon him wi' a spate that there was some connection between thir twa, an' that either or baith o' them were bogles.”

   “But, my dear David, this world is a censorious place—as who should know it better than myself, who have lived ever since the days of my late departed father, God sain him! in a perfect spate of calumnies?”

   “Only let your language match your subject, then it will be shapely and free; but take care all the time not to overwhelm your work in a spate of words to attain the fluency of Isaeus; and that it slip not out too freely, avoid the danger of Strada [Zanobi da Strada?].”

verb

1. (Scotland, archaic, transitive)To (suddenly) flood or inundate (a river or other watercourse) with water.

   “[H]e paused in a reverie of wilderment and wonder when he could not discern the old fishing-places—they were deeply and darkly flooded for many yards on every side of the spated stream.”

   “A few of the very best angling streams in the Highlands are almost perennial in their flow; the Halladale, on the contrary, is subject to spating.”

   “The gates of Anger open, and the flood, / Spated with hate, unstemmed of men, pours out, / Drenching the trench with hot and beaded blood, / Choking each challenging or anguish'd shout.”

   “The day was lovely and clear after the rain. The river had not spated as much as I had expected, and there was only one place in my sector where lorries might have found difficulty in crossing the nala.”

   “river strontian, argyll […] This is a good example of a short, west-coast spating oligotrophic river. […] The river is subject to a rise in water level of up to 1 m following heavy rain and the water is clear and fairly low in dissolved nutrients.”

2. (Scotland, archaic, intransitive)To (suddenly) rain heavily; to pour.