The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Tirade \Ti*rade"\, n. [F., fr. It. tirada, properly, a pulling;
   hence, a lengthening out, a long speech, a tirade, fr. tirare
   to draw; of Teutonic origin, and akin to E. tear to redn. See
   Tear to rend, and cf. Tire to tear.]
   A declamatory strain or flight of censure or abuse; a
   rambling invective; an oration or harangue abounding in
   censorious and bitter language.
   [1913 Webster]

         Here he delivers a violent tirade against persons who
         profess to know anything about angels.   --Quarterly
                                                  Review.
   [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

tirade
    n 1: a speech of violent denunciation [syn: tirade,
         philippic, broadside]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

134 Moby Thesaurus words for "tirade":
   abundance, abuse, address, after-dinner speech, allocution,
   amplitude, assailing, assault, attack, bawl, berating,
   bitter words, blackening, censure, chalk talk, cloud of words,
   condemnation, contumely, copiousness, cry, debate, declamation,
   denunciation, diatribe, diffuseness, diffusion, diffusiveness,
   dolorous tirade, effusion, effusiveness, eulogy, execration,
   exhortation, extravagance, exuberance, fecundity, fertility,
   filibuster, fluency, forensic, forensic address, formal speech,
   formlessness, funeral oration, groan, gush, gushing, harangue,
   hard words, hortatory address, howl, inaugural, inaugural address,
   invective, jawing, jeremiad, keen, lament, lecture, logorrhea,
   macrology, moan, murmur, mutter, onslaught, oration, outburst,
   outcry, outpour, overflow, palilogy, pep talk, peroration,
   philippic, pitch, plaint, planctus, pleonasm, prepared speech,
   prepared text, prodigality, productivity, profuseness, profusion,
   prolificacy, prolificity, public speech, rampancy, rankness, rant,
   rating, reading, recital, recitation, redundancy, reiteration,
   reiterativeness, repetition for effect, repetitiveness, revilement,
   rodomontade, sales talk, salutatory, salutatory address, say,
   scream, screed, sermon, set speech, sob, speech, speechification,
   speeching, superabundance, superfluity, superflux, talk, talkathon,
   talkativeness, tautology, teemingness, tongue-lashing, ululation,
   valediction, valedictory, valedictory address, vilification,
   vituperation, wail, wail of woe, whimper, whine, yawp, yowl