agitate

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.

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ˈæ.d͡ʒɪ.teɪt/

• Audio (UK):

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agitate (third-person singular simple present agitates, present participle agitating, simple past and past participle agitated)

1. (transitive) To disturb or excite; to perturb or stir up (a person). [from 16th c.]

   Synonyms: disturb, unsettle; see also Thesaurus:upset

   Antonyms: appease, calm, quieten

   He was greatly agitated by the news.

2. (transitive) To cause to move with a violent, irregular action; to shake. [from 16th c.]

   Synonyms: move, muddle, roil, shake

   to agitate water in a vessel

   The wind agitates the sea.

   • 1830, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford:

     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.

3. To participate in political agitation (sense 3).
   • 1981 August 1, Mitzel, “NAMBLA Says National Crackdown Starting”, in Gay Community News, page 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.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To set in motion; to actuate. [16th–18th c.]

   Synonyms: activate, animate, excite, trigger, rouse, set off

5. (transitive, now rare) To discuss or debate. [from 16th c.]

   Synonyms: discuss, debate, canvass

   • 1790, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men‎^[1]:

     Your speech at the time a bill for the regency was agitated now lies before me.

6. (transitive, now rare) To mull over, or think deeply about; to consider, to devise. [from 17th c.]

   Synonyms: revolve, ruminate; see also Thesaurus:ponder

   Politicians agitate desperate designs.

• “agitate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “agitate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “agitate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Audio:

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agitate

1. present adverbial passive participle of agiti

agitate

1. adverbial present passive participle of agitar

agitate f

1. feminine plural of agitato

• gattaie

agitāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of agitō

From Middle English, from Latin agitatus. Cognate with English agitate.

• IPA^(key): /əˈdʒɪtet/

agitate (third-person singular simple present agitates, present participle agitatin, simple past agitatit, past participle agitate)

1. to agitate

• Eagle, Andy, editor (2025), “agitate”, in The Online Scots Dictionary‎^[2]

agitate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of agitar combined with te