agitator

American  

[aj-i-tey-ter] / ˈædʒ ɪˌteɪ tər /

noun

1. a person who stirs up others in order to upset the status quo and further a political, social, or other cause.

   The boss said he would fire any union agitators.

2. a machine or device for agitating and mixing.

---

agitator British  

/ ˈædʒɪˌteɪtə /

noun

1. a person who agitates for or against a cause, etc

2. a device, machine, or part used for mixing, shaking, or vibrating a material, usually a fluid

---

Usage

What does agitator mean? An agitator is someone who attempts to promote support or opposition for a political or social cause, especially by repeatedly raising the issue and bringing awareness to it. To do this is to agitate, and the act of doing this can be called agitation. Both words are much more commonly used in more general ways. The verb agitate more commonly means to make someone feel anxious or to stir something up, like how a storm agitates the ocean. Calling someone an agitator often implies that they are trying to stir things up and change the status quo, especially in a way that’s controversial. People who intend to do this might call themselves agitators. However, the word agitator is often used in a negative way, perhaps implying that such a person only intends to cause trouble. A more negative synonym for agitator is provocateur. A more positive or neutral synonym is activist. The word agitator is also used in another very specific but unrelated way, as a name for a machine part whose function is agitating or mixing. This sense of the word is most commonly used to refer to part of a washing machine that agitates the clothes (spins them around in the water). Example: He has spent years as a prominent antiwar agitator, protesting the proliferation of the military-industrial complex.

Other Word Forms

• agitatorial
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of agitator

First recorded in 1730–40; agitate + -or ²

Explanation

In politics, an agitator is someone who deliberately gets other people riled up about an issue, encouraging them to protest. It's a fairly common political tactic to call activists and reformers agitators, implying that they mainly want to cause trouble. When large groups of citizens protest policies or laws, those in opposition sometimes accuse them of being agitators, rather than people who actually believe in a cause. In the 1960s, George Wallace, the pro-segregation governor of Alabama, famously called civil rights activists "paid outside agitators."

Example Sentences

“I felt drawn to the peace movement,” she said in the Catholic Agitator interview.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 17, 2021

“Engineer, Agitator, Constructor” is a feast of interwar innovation, but it has an undercurrent that I don’t like: a suggestion that progress in art and progress in society go naturally together.

From New York Times • Dec. 17, 2020

“Oriana Fallaci: The Journalist, The Agitator, The Legend” begins by following the chronology, delivering chills early, when the teenage girl was a runner for the Partisans, helping fight the Nazis.

From Washington Post • Mar. 22, 2018

The fourth and final Bond film to be directed by Guy Hamilton, “The Man With the Golden Gun” had Bond searching for a device that contained the power of the sun called the Solex Agitator.

From Los Angeles Times • May 23, 2017

It might have been prettier than the Case Agitator.

From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck

Related Words

• anarchist
• demagogue
• firebrand
• malcontent
• propagandist
• protestor
• radical
• troublemaker
• zealot