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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.