stir up the animals

stir up the animals (third-person singular simple present stirs up the animals, present participle stirring up the animals, simple past and past participle stirred up the animals)

1. To cause public discontent or controversy.
   • 2001, Richard P. Horwitz, The American Studies Anthology, page 50:

     He styled himself both a Prohibition-flouting "Baltimoron" and "an incurable snob," the voice of "the intelligent minority" determined "to stir up the animals."

   • 2013, Rupert Wilkinson, Surviving a Japanese Internment Camp:

     The Japanese were often skittish about elections: they wanted to control who they got as top administrators and feared elections might stir up the animals.