agitates

Verb

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).
   • He was greatly agitated by the news.

   Synonyms:

   disturb, unsettle, freak, sting, bother, bring down, discompose, unstring, disconcert, enturbulate

   Antonyms:

   appease, calm, quieten

2. (transitive) To cause to move with a violent, irregular action; to shake.
   • to agitate water in a vessel

   Synonyms:

   move, muddle, roil, shake

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, transitive) To set in motion; to actuate.

   Synonyms:

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

5. (archaic, transitive) 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

   Synonyms:

   discuss, debate, canvass

6. (archaic, transitive) To mull over, or think deeply about; to consider, to devise.
   • Politicians agitate desperate designs.

   Synonyms:

   revolve, ruminate, afterthink, bethink, call to mind, chew, chew over, chew the cud, cogitate, consider