agitate the communicator

present singular third person agitates the communicator · participle present agitating the communicator · participle past agitated the communicator · past agitated the communicator

1. archaichumorousTo ring a bell as a summons.

   Agitate the communicator, and send the slavey round to the stables.

   1865, Bracebridge Hemyng, Butler Burke at Eton, page 251

   2 more examples

   So Tom, Dick, and Harry were obliged to be in waiting on the Captain, who might agitate the communicator any minute, and woe be to him who was not ready to obey the summons.

   1857, William Wilson Dobie, Recollections of a Visit to Port-Phillip, Australia, in 1852-55, page 29

   So in we hopped, and he dropped us just outside their gate, and in we walked; and, having agitated the communicator, out comes an old lady, whom Henri tried to introduce himself to, but the old girl was awfully deaf, […]

   1882, Harry Scott Barton, What I did in "the Long", page 17