agitate
verbUK, US /ˈæ.d͡ʒɪ.teɪt/
Etymology From Middle English agitat(e) (“set in motion”), borrowed from Latin agitātus, perfect passive participle of agitō (“to put in motion”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), frequentative of agō (“to drive, move, push”), see -tō. Cognate with French agiter. See also act and agent.
1
To disturb or excite; to perturb or stir up (a person).
- He was greatly agitated by the news.
2
To cause to move with a violent, irregular action; to shake.
- to agitate water in a vessel
- The wind agitates the sea.
1 more example
- It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.1830, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford:
3
To participate in political agitation (sense 3).
- NAMBLA is working to build a coalition of gay, lesbian, progressive and civil liberties groups to agitate against the increasing state attacks on gay men who associate with boys.1981 August 1, Mitzel, “NAMBLA Says National Crackdown Starting”, in Gay Community News, page 3:
4
Obsolete To set in motion; to actuate.
5
Archaic To discuss or debate.
- Your speech at the time a bill for the regency was agitated now lies before me.1790, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men:
6
Archaic To mull over, or think deeply about; to consider, to devise.
- Politicians agitate desperate designs.
- Derived terms
- agitate the communicator, circumagitate, counteragitate, overagitate, reagitate
- Related terms
- agitable, agitant, agitatee, agitation, agitational, agitative, agitator, agitatory, agitatrix, inagitable