agitatorn.

1623 G. de Malynes Center of Circle of Commerce 2 In Agitator, Logicke turned into Rimes & rayling.

1647 Petition Private Souldierie 29 May in T. Fairfax Two Lett. with Advice Councel of Warre sig. B^v Your Excellencies and the Kingdomes innocent and faithfull servants, whose names are hereunto annexed, being Agitators in behalf of the severall Regiments. Edward Sexby. Edward Taylor. Adjutators of the Generals Regime[nt] of Horse [etc.].

1650 T. Fuller Pisgah-sight of Palestine ii. xii. 250 Devills then dancing for joy, where once Angels (those holy Agitators) went up and down betwixt heaven and earth.

a1671 T. Fairfax Short Mem. (1699) 207 Now the Officers of the Army were plac'd and displac'd at the will of the new Agitators.

a1682 T. Herbert Mem. Charles I (1702) 36 Active and malevolent Persons of the Army, disguis'd under the specious Name of Agitators, being Two selected out of every Regiment, to meet and debate the Concerns of the Army.

1704 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion III. x. 33 The Common Soldiers made choice of three or four of each Regiment, most Corporals or Serjeants, few or none above the degree of an Ensign, who were called Agitators, and were to be as a House of Commons to the Council of Officers.

1778 P. Burton Speculum Britannicum i. 20 This council and that of the agitators, which together formed the military parliament, found no distempers but many grievances in the army.

1827 H. Hallam Constit. Hist. Eng. II. x. 64 Those elective tribunes called Agitators, who had been established in every regiment to superintend the interests of the army... [Note] Some have supposed it [sc. Agitator] to be a corruption of adjutators, as if the modern adjutant meant the same thing. But I find agitator always so spelled in the pamphlets of the time.

1871 T. Carlyle Cromwell I. iii. 243 They are ‘Agents’ to the Army: a class of functionaries called likewise ‘Adjutators’ and misspelt ‘Agitators’.

1988 Oxf. Illustr. Encycl. III. 2071 In that year Leveller ‘Agitators’ were elected from each regiment to participate in the Putney debates.

2006 M. Bennett Oliver Cromwell vi. 125 Army agitators from five horse regiments with unclear and perhaps dubious claims to a mandate from all the soldiers themselves, drafted The Case of the Army Truly Stated.

1681 R. Hassell Let. 25 Oct. in R. Law Eng. in W. Afr. (1997) I. vii. 178 I will not add fuell to fire, for whome you guess is the whole agitator and whome your Honour has soe highly advanced, Mr Nightingale per name.

a1734 R. North Examen (1740) i. iii. 195 The visible Agitators of all the Seditions and Troubles of King Charles the Second's Reign.

1780 E. Burke Speech Duration Parl. in Writings & Speeches (1996) III. 593 In every district of the Kingdom there is some leading man, some agitator..who is followed by the whole Flock.

1791 ‘T. Newte’ Prospects & Observ. Tour 4 Talked of by certain political reformers and other agitators.

1829 Ann. Reg. 1828 i. Hist. Europe 123/1 Starting against him [sc. Fitzgerald] their own great popish leader and agitator, Daniel O'Connell.

1853 Encycl. Brit. II. 240 The great agitator, Daniel O'Connell, was able to stir up the mass of the Irish nation.

1920 Independent 31 Jan. 161/1 Bolshevik Representative Klishke—‘Soviet Russia will not allow itself to be used as a dumping ground for agitators from America.’

1931 New Statesman 4 July 4/1 Mr. Winston Churchill, the notorious British agitator (we adopt the phraseology of the Morning Post when describing M. Bukharin and other distinguished Russians now in this country) has now decided that disarmament is impossible, because of the menace of Russia.

1938 W. H. Auden & C. Isherwood On Frontier i. ii. 46 Col. Hussek. Tcha! Another lightning strike at the Docks!.. Mrs. Vrodny. I'm sure it's only due to Westland agitators.

1959 Observer 29 Mar. 11/4 Mrs. Nora Jefferey said at the British Communist Party congress..that the Communist aim should be: Every member a propagandist and agitator.

1996 C. J. Stone Fierce Dancing p. i He became a full-time political agitator, involved in the Miners' Strike, the Poll Tax protests and, latterly, against the Criminal Justice Act.

1794 Repertory Arts & Manuf. 1 126 During the operation, the agitator must be from time to time put in motion, to favour the absorption of the gas by the water.

1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 72 The agitator is then suspended to a spring R, and..the operator gives an alternating rapid movement, which agitates the solution.

1871 B. Stewart Heat (ed. 2) 51 By means of an agitator every part of this tube..may be brought to the same temperature throughout.

1901 F. Norris Octopus ii. ix. 616 The agitator jarred and crashed; cylinders, augers, fans, seeders and elevators, drapers and chaff-carriers, clattered, rumbled, buzzed, and clanged.

1937 Times 13 Apr. p. xiii/4 The paint..is subjected to what is termed ‘agitating’ or mixing. When it enters the containers it meets two more agitators, one at the top and one at the bottom of the container.

1985 P. J. Wingate Before Bridge xv. 147 With the agitator in the vat going to keep this slurry in suspension, we ran concentrated sulfuric acid into the mixture.

2005 C. Mendelson Laundry i. iii. 39 American front-loading and hybrid models are no longer smaller than agitators.