spate

spate主要指突然涌来的大量水，也可比喻某种事物、言论或事件集中涌现；作动词时指河水突然泛滥或雨下得很大。

💡 记忆钩子

把spate想成一股突然冲下来的洪流：先是河水因暴雨或融雪暴涨，接着也可以把雨、消息、投诉等比作成股涌来的洪流；作动词时，就是让河道被这股水冲满或突然下起大雨。

📝 学习建议

先掌握名词“突然的洪水”这一核心义，再记住“某事物大量涌现”的比喻义；动词义较少见，可放在后面学习。
不要把spate机械地理解成普通的“一阵”或“很多”，它强调突然集中出现、像水流一样涌来。

📖 中文释义

noun

core 突发洪水

📖 指河流或其他水道因暴雨、融雪等突然水量大增，发生泛滥或溢流；核心画面就是一股猛然冲来的洪水。

💡 常用“a spate in the river”或“after a spate of rain”等结构，说明洪水出现的地点或诱因。它通常是可数名词，前面常有a；在现代普通英语中多用于特定地域或较文学的叙述。不要把它和持续、缓慢上涨的水位混用。

Scotland countable

The bridge was closed after a spate in the river.

河水突然暴涨后，这座桥被关闭了。
rare 骤雨

📖 指突然猛烈降下的一阵雨，可以看作从“洪水般涌来的水”延伸出的义项。

💡 通常用“a spate of rain”或“during a spate”等结构，前面可用a表示一次突发降雨。这个义项主要见于苏格兰语境和较旧的用法；在一般英语中更自然的说法通常是“a heavy downpour”。

Scotland countable
core 大量涌现

📖 比喻投诉、消息、事件、言论等像洪水一样在短时间内接连出现，强调突然、集中和数量多。

💡 最典型的结构是“a spate of + 复数名词”，例如投诉、袭击或辞职等。它常用于新闻和正式书面语，通常不修饰单个具体事物；不要只把它理解成普通的“很多”，还要注意集中涌现的感觉。

Scotland countable figuratively

The newspaper received a spate of complaints about the article.

这家报纸收到了一连串针对那篇文章的投诉。

spates plural

verb

rare 使河水暴涨

📖 指河流或其他水道突然被大量水冲满并泛滥，是名词“洪水”转成的动词用法。

💡 常见形式是“the river spated”或“a spated stream”，主语通常是河流，过去分词也可作定语。这个义项主要属于苏格兰语和旧式表达；现代英语中不要用它代替最常见的“the river flooded”。

Scotland archaic transitive
rare 骤然下大雨

📖 指雨突然猛烈地下起来，可以看作“洪水般涌来”的动词化表达。

💡 通常用无主语结构“it spated”，或用过去时描述某段天气。这个用法古旧且地域性强；日常表达应优先使用“it poured”或“it rained heavily”。

Scotland archaic intransitive

spates present,singular,third-person spating participle,present spated participle,past spated past

📘 英文释义 (WordNet) 共 3 组

the occurrence of a water flow resulting from sudden rain or melting snow

同义词集: freshet spate

上位: flow, flowing

a sudden forceful flow

同义词集: rush spate surge upsurge

上位: flow, flowing

(often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent; ; ; ; ; ; ;

同义词集: batch deal flock good deal great deal hatful heap lot mass mess mickle mint mountain muckle passel peck pile plenty pot quite a little raft sight slew spate stack tidy sum wad

a batch of letters

a deal of trouble

a lot of money

he made a mint on the stock market

see the rest of the winners in our huge passel of photos

it must have cost plenty

a slew of journalists

a wad of money

下位: deluge, flood, inundation, torrent

🌳 词源

名词源自中古英语spate或spait“洪水”，并受到苏格兰语相关词义的影响；词源关系尚不确定，可能与表示飞溅的词有关。动词由名词转化而来。

The noun is derived from Middle English spate, spait (“a flood”), influenced by Scots spate (“torrent of water, flood; heavy downpour of rain; (figurative) bout of drinking; large crowd of people; flood of events, words, etc.”). The further etymology of the Middle English and Scots words is uncertain; they are possibly related to English spatter and Dutch spatten (“to spatter, splash”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sp(y)ēw-, *spyū- (whence English spit (“to evacuate (saliva or another substance) from the mouth, etc.”)), which is imitative of spitting. The verb is derived from the noun, probably influenced by Scots spate (“to flood, swell; to rain heavily; (figurative) to scold fiercely”).

🔄 变式

spated past spates plural spating present

🏷 单词标签 & 词根