Definition of "spate" []

• A sudden flood, rush, or outpouring: "It issues a spate of words from the loudspeakers and the politicians” ( Virginia Woolf). (noun)
• Chiefly British A flash flood. (noun)
• Chiefly British A freshet resulting from a downpour of rain or melting of snow. (noun)
• Chiefly British A sudden heavy fall of rain. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "But one group of Boston brokers also has detected what they call a spate of "rent engineering" -- a tactic of getting the highest possible face rent by giving the tenant favorable terms on other aspects of the leases."
• "To sit immediately below Fidel in full spate is an extraordinary experience."
• "Here the first need is for the control for flood protection of the waters which come down in sudden spate from the glaciers and snowclad slopes of the Rockies under the effect of the strengthening sun of spring and early summer."