Search the Dictionary

he act of discussing or exchanging reasons; examination by argument; debate; disputation; agitation. The liberty of discussion is the great safeguard of all other liberties. Macaulay. Discussion of a problem or an equation (Math.), the operation of assigning different reasonable values to the arbitrary quantities and i…

Want of peace or tranquility; uneasiness; disturbance; agitation; anxiety. Fears and disquietude, and unavoidable anxieties of mind. Abp. Sharp.

Agitation from violent emotions; perturbation of mind; despair. The distraction of the children, who saw both their parents together, would have melted the hardest heart. Tatler.

Confusion of the mind; agitation of the feelings; perplexity; uneasiness. Any man . . . in a state of disturbance and irritation. Burke.

the mind or soul; excitement of the feelings, whether pleasing or painful; disturbance or agitation of mind caused by a specific exciting cause and manifested by some sensible effect on the body. How different the emotions between departure and return! W. Irving. Some vague emotion of delight. Tennyson.…

The act of estuating; commotion, as of a fluid; agitation. The estuations of joys and fears. W. Montagu.

ting, or the state of being roused into action, or of having increased action; impulsion; agitation; as, an excitement of the people.

Intestine motion; heat; tumult; agitation. Subdue and cool the ferment of desire. Rogers. the nation is in a ferment. Walpole. in a ferment in a state of agitation, applied to human groups.

A state of agitation or excitement, as of the intellect or the feelings. It puts the soul to fermentation and activity. Jer. Taylor. A univesal fermentation of human thought and faith. C. Kingsley. Acetous, or Acetic, fermentation, a form of oxidation in which alcohol is converted into vinegar or acetic acid by the age…

Finely granulated; -- said of quicksilver which has been granulated by agitation during the amalgamation process. Raymond.

Violent agitation; commotion; bustle; hurry. The racket and flurry of London. Blakw. Mag.

To make hot and rosy, as with drinking; to heat; hence, to throw into agitation and confusion; to confuse; to muddle. His habit or flustering himself daily with claret. Macaulay.

To be in agitation; to move irregularly; to flucttuate; to be uncertainty. Long we fluttered on the wings of doubtful success. Howell. His thoughts are very fluttering and wandering. I. Watts.

Hurry; tumult; agitation of the mind; confusion; disorder. Pope. Flutter wheel, a water wheel placed below a fall or in a chute where rapidly moving water strikes the tips of the floats; -- so called from the spattering, and the fluttering noise it makes.

bbles, which is formed on the surface of liquids,or in the mouth of an animal, by violent agitation or fermentation; froth; spume; scum; as, the foam of the sea. Foam cock, in steam boilers, a cock at the water level, to blow off impurities.

Any violent agitation of the mind approaching to distraction; violent and temporary derangement of the mental faculties; madness; rage. All else is towering frenzy and distraction. Addison. The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling. Shak.

The agitation of the surface of a fluid by fermentation or other cause; a rippling on the surface of water. Addison.

The bubbles caused in fluids or liquors by fermentation or agitation; spume; foam; esp., a spume of saliva caused by disease or nervous excitement.

Violent or extreme excitement; overmastering agitation or enthusiasm. Her wit began to be with a divine fury inspired. Sir P. Sidney.

etc. Exploits done in the heart of France. Shak. Peace subsisting at the heart Of endless agitation. Wordsworth.