[a. (16th c.) Fr. agitation, ad. L. agitātiōn-em n. of action, f. agitā-re: see AGITATE a.] The action of agitating.
† 1. The action of moving, stirring; motion, action, exercise of activity. Obs.
1573. Bp. Cooper, Thesaurus, Agitatio, moouing, stirring, agitation, exercise.
1610. Gwillim, Heraldry, III. xx. (1660), 217. Albeit they … have their feeding upon the earth, yet is their agitation above in the Ayre.
1633. T. N[ewton], trans. Lemnie’s Touchst. Compl., 167. Likewise doth the body of man become putrified … if it accustome not it selfe to exercise and agitation.
1711. F. Fuller, Med. Gym., 4. By Exercise then, I understand all … Motion or Agitation of the Body.
2. esp. The moving of (anything) to and fro; shaking.
1583. Plat, Jewel-ho. (1594), 47. Or use anie other devise by agitation or shaking, untill you have broken the yolke.
1659. Baxter, Saving Faith, § 12. 88. Even Agitation with pressure sometimes sets the Turners wood on fire.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 133, ¶ 2. Enabled me to bear the agitation of a coach.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, x. § 484. Brought to the surface by the agitation of the sea.
3. A state or condition of being moved to and fro; commotion, disturbance, perturbation.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. vii. § 1 (1873). The true character of Divine Presence, coming in … without noise or agitation.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 21. A tremulous Motion and Agitation of rowling fumes.
1775. Burke, Concil. Amer., Wks. III. 27. Under them the state of America has been kept in continual agitation.
1880. Cyples, Hum. Exp., i. 5. A nervo-cerebral system, with specific agitations set up and propagated in it.
4. Mental disturbance or perturbation (showing itself usually by physical excitement).
[1573. Bp. Cooper, Thesaurus, Agitatio mentis, the agitation and exercise of mind.]
1722. De Foe, Plague (1756), 221. I have seen them in strange Agitations and Surprises on this Account.
1788. Johnson, Lett., 207, II. 55. Think on such things as may please without too much agitation.
1816. Scott, Antiq., vii. ‘We thought,’ replied Sir Arthur in great agitation, ‘we thought we could get round Halket-head.’
1834. Ht. Martineau, Demerara, iv. 52. A long, deep sob broke from him, and the child, terrified at his agitation, ran away.
5. The mental tossing of a matter to and fro; consideration, debate, discussion.
1569. Shaks., Merch. Ven., III. v. 5. [Clown says] So now I speake my agitation of the matter.
1625. Bacon, Ess. (1862), xx. 82. Things will have their first, or second Agitation; If they be not tossed upon the Arguments of Counsell, they will be tossed upon the Waves of Fortune.
1640. Fuller, Abel Rediv., Sandys (1867), II. 192. The business in agitation very weighty.
1769. Junius Lett., xxiii. 112. The latest moments of your life were dedicated to the same … busy agitations.
1865. Parkman, Huguenots (1875), i. 9. While this design was in agitation.
† 6. Busy devising, scheming, contrivance. Obs.
1607. Topsell, Four-footed Beasts (1673), 176. The hunter must … in hunting of a fox … drive him against the winde, and then he preventeth all his crafty and subtill agitations and devises.
1626. Howell, Lett. (1650), I. 206. You heard how I was in agitation for an employment in Italy.
† 7. Eng. Hist. The action of the ‘Agitators’ of 1647. Obs.
a. 1671. Fairfax, Short Mem. (1699), 116. The Army was almost wholly infected with this Humour of Agitation. Ibid., 105. I shall now descend to some particulars of their Agitations.
8. The keeping of a political or other object constantly before public attention, by appeals, discussion, etc.; public excitement. See AGITATE 8.
1828. Ann. Reg., Hist., 122/2. Its [Catholic Association’s] orators publicly proclaimed that ‘Agitation,’ as they termed it, was the object which they had in view, and that agitation they would have so long as they found it necessary.
1863. W. Phillips, Speeches, iii. 53. The antislavery agitation.
1879. McCarthy, Own Times, I. 337. With the Manchester school began a new kind of popular agitation. Up to that time agitation meant appeal to passion…. The Manchester school introduced the agitation which appealed to reason and argument only; which stirred men’s hearts with figures of arithmetic, rather than figures of speech.
