spate, n. orig. Sc. and north.
(speɪt)
Forms: α. 5– spate, 5–9 spait, 6–7, 9 dial. spaitt, 6–7 spat, 7 spaite, 9 spaight. β. 6–7 speate, 7–9 speat, 9 dial. speatt, speeat, speet, spete, spyet, etc.
[Of obscure origin: the early spelling and rimes show that the original vowel was ā, the later change of which to ea, etc., is regular.]
1. A flood or inundation; esp. a sudden flood or rising in a river or stream caused by heavy rains or melting snow.
| α c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. i. vii[i.] heading, The ark and the spate of Noe. Ibid. vii. 771 Na spate Þan mycht mak þar kneys wate. c 1440 Alph. Tales 381 Þe watur þat was cald Padus rase vp opon a grete spate and owryode all þe feldis. 1522 Aberdeen Reg. (1844) I. 105 The sentrice of the brig..quhilk the spat haid brocht dovne incontinent. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. (1568) 35 Great heapes of Stones are casten together wyth the myght of a great spat or floode. 1570 Levins Manip. 39 A spate, torrens. c 1614 Sir W. Mure Dido & æneas ii. 478 Nor haile, nor sleet, nor wind, nor weit [Atlas] eschewes; Adoune his shoulders raging spates do spowt. 1706 Sibbald Hist. Picts in Misc. Scot. I. 97 Others perished in the water, being carried down by the spate. 1725 Ramsay Gentle Sheph. i. ii, The spate may bear away Frae aff the howms your dainty rucks of hay. 1858 Gladstone Homer III. 158 That he carried away in sudden spates many of the horses that were pastured on his banks. 1889 F. A. Knight By Leafy Ways 25 Heaps of drifted rubbish,..to mark the tide-line of the winter spates. |
| transf. 1611 Sir W. Mure Misc. Poems ii. 60 Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 11 No spaits of teires culd quench ye boyling leede. 1847 Motherwell Poet. Wks. (ed. 2) 9 In that spate of blood, how well The headless corpse will swim. |
| β 1595 Duncan App. Etym. (E.D.S.), Eluvio, diluvium, a speate of watters. a 1670 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (Spalding Cl.) I. 81 Throw ane great speat of the water of Die, occasioned be the..extraordinar rayne, thir haill four schippis brak louss. 1731 Morison's Dict. Decis. (1806) XXXIII. 14524 The prejudice..did arise..from the running in of mud and gravel, by speats and land-floods. 1785 Burns Brigs of Ayr 121 While crashing ice, borne on the roaring speat, Sweeps dams, an' mills, an' brigs, a' to the gate. 1818 S. E. Ferrier Marriage I. 296 A Horse and Cart were drowned at the Ford last Speat. 1863 [W. F. Campbell] Life in Normandy I. 54 They [i.e. fish] cannot get into these small rivers without a speat. |
b. A sudden heavy downpour or storm
of rain.
| 1727 Life J. Semple in Biogr. Presbyteriana (1827) I. 168 With a Speat of Rain, to raise the Waters. 1793 T. Scott Poems 389 Routh o' kisses, That fell like speats o' rain. 1825– in numerous northern dial. glossaries. 1871 Daily News 25 Aug., All day long there had been a ‘spate’ of rain in Inverary. |
c. fig. A sudden or violent outburst or outpouring
of some quality, feeling, etc.; a sudden rush or flood, an unusual number or quantity,
of words, events, etc.
| α c 1614 Sir W. Mure Dido & æneas iii. 191 Death⁓bent Dido,..Transported with a rageing spait of ire. a 1689 W. Cleland Poems (1697) 45 Innocence proves no defence, Against this Spait of violence. 1730 T. Boston Mem. x. 320 The spate ran high for the transportation [to Closeburn] when we came to town. a 1796 ? Burns Poem on Pastoral Poet. ix, Nae bombast spates o' nonsense swell. 1826 Scott Jrnl. 6 Sept., Here is a fine spate of work—a day diddled away, and nothing to show for it. 1890 Argus (Melbourne) 17 Dec. 9/2, I already had such a spate of schools to attend that I was unable to accept the invitation. |
| β 1629 Sir W. Mure True Crucifix 564 Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 221 Thy Crimes the cause, thy sinnes inunding speate. 1634 Rutherford Lett. (1862) I. xxxvii. 118 God hath dried up one channel of your love by the removal of your husband. Let now that speat run upon Christ. 1710 Ruddiman Gloss. Douglas' æneis s.v. Flum, A speat of language. 1731 Plain Reasons Presbyt. Diss. 138 The most honest cause is often run down with the torrent and speat of law⁓quirks. 1834 Tait's Mag. I. 428/1 Not a foaming speat, and blether of dictionary words. 1858–61 E. B. Ramsay Remin. vi. (1870) 168 Sic a speat o' praying, and sic a speat o' drinking, I never knew. |
2. Without article: Flooding or inundation, swollen condition
of water, etc.; copious downpouring
of rain. Now usually without
const.| 1513 Douglas æneid ix. i. 74 Sevyn swelland ryveris eftyr spait of rayne. 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) II. 287 In this yeir, al the landis of Godowine, be spait of seis, wes coverit with sandis. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. 9 Inundation, or spate of water, or anie other suddaine chance or perill. c 1630 in Burton Scot Abr. (1864) II. 323 For as meikle as a greit part of the playfeild.. is spoiled, broken and carriet away in speat and inundation of water. 1848 Clough Bothie of Toper-na-Fuosich i. 7 As sudden torrent in time of speat in the mountain. 1893 K. Simpson Jeanie o' Biggersdale 51 The water rushed down..angrily in winter and in times of spate. |
b. in (or † on) spate, in flood.
| 1513 Douglas æneid ii. vi. 14 Quhen the burne on spait hurlis doun the bank. 1567 Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) 111 Lyke burnis that in spait fast rin. 1610 Aberdeen Reg. (1848) II. 299 The said burne, efter great rayne, being in spat, brak out oft and diuerse tymes be vehement force. 1803 Jamieson Water-Kelpie xxi. in Scott Minstrelsy, Yestereen the water was in spate. 1860 G. H. K. Vac. Tour 133 The burn, high in spate,..rattles harshly at our feet. |
c. Broken or turbulent water characteristic of a river in flood.
rare—1.
| 1884 W. Sime To & Fro 104 The Ilen..breaking into rough currents of brown ‘spate’. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
spate river,
spate water;
spate-created adj.| 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 115 The spate wateris of the grete mountanis may sudaynly cum till infest the ost and disloge thame. 1529 Registr. Aberdon. (Maitl. Cl.) I. 396 Gif it sall happin þe said brig be..inundatioun of spaitt water weiring of grund be our inaduertence..to failȝe. 1901 Scotsman 4 Mar. 10/2 Floods are of very short duration on those spate rivers. 1901 Pall Mall G. 17 Sept. 6/2 Those spate-created runs at the heads of pools. |
Hence
spate v. trans., to flood, swell;
intr., to rain heavily. Also
ˈspated ppl. a.| 1827 Aikman Hist. Scot. III. iv. 374 The speated Tweed came down heavy two days before. 1853 W. Watson Poems 26 (E.D.D.), Sheughs an' deep fur-drains were jawin' To spate the burns. 1866 Banffshire Gloss. 230 It spaitit on the hail nicht. |