agitate
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agitate
- /ˈæ.d͡ʒɪ.teɪt/ UK, US
Where it comes from
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.
verb agitates · agitating · agitated
- To disturb or excite; to perturb or stir up (a person). He was greatly agitated by the news.
- To cause to move with a violent, irregular action; to shake. to agitate water in a vessel
- 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.
- To set in motion; to actuate.
- To discuss or debate. Your speech at the time a bill for the regency was agitated now lies before me.
- To mull over, or think deeply about; to consider, to devise. Politicians agitate desperate designs.
