agitate the communicator

agitate the communicator (third-person singular simple present agitates the communicator, present participle agitating the communicator, simple past and past participle agitated the communicator)

1. (humorous, archaic) To ring a bell as a summons.
   • 1857, William Wilson Dobie, Recollections of a Visit to Port-Phillip, Australia, in 1852-55, page 29:

     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.

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

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

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

     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, […]

• 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary (under tinkler)