agitation

[In Fr. agitation; Sp. agitacion; Port. agitação; Ital. a git azione; all from Lat. agitatio (1) frequent or continued motion; (2) emotion, activity of mind.] L The act of agitating. 1. Lit .: The act of agitating, shaking or moving hither and thither any material thing or things, as water or the leaves of trees. "Putrefaction asketh rest, for the subtle motion which putrefaction requireth is disturbed by any agitation."- Bacon . 2. Fig .: The act of directly or indirectly exciting the mind or heart of any one. [See II. (α).] IL The state of being agitated. Fig. Of what is not simply material: (a) Of a person or persons other than one's self agitated: The state of being alarmed, rendered anxious, or otherwise put into perturbation or excitement. "In both places the tidings produced great agita tion,"-Macaulay: Hist . Eng . , ch. xiii. kept the City in constant agitation ."-Ibid., ch. xviii. IMG:content-0280.png:[blocks in formation] (b) of a question or project agitated: The state of being kept before the public mind by being discu ed at meetings, in the pre , or in any other way. "The project now in agitation for repealing of the Test Act, and yet leaving the name ame of an establishment to the present national church, is inconsistent." Swift : Miscellanies . (c) Of one's own mind agitated: The state of being revolved in one's own mind, so as to be thoroughly comprehended. It can in a looser sense be used of the inferior animals. "A kind of a school question is started in this fable upon reason and instinct: this deliberative proceeding of the crow rather a logical agitation of the matter."-L'Estrange: Fables. + III. The thing or the person agitated. In the questions, "Where is the agitation in the stream?" "Where is the agitation in the city you bid me look at?" the meaning is not "where is the state of agitation?" but where is the agitated water?" "where are the excited people?" IMG:content-0281.png:[blocks in formation] ag-i-ta-tō, adv. [Ital. agitare =. to agitate.] Music: In a broken style of performance, fitted to excite surprise or agitation.