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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sympathetic sounds

Sympathetic \Sym`pa*thet"ic\, a. [See Sympathy, and cf. Pathetic.]

  1. Inclined to sympathy; sympathizing.

    Far wiser he, whose sympathetic mind Exults in all the good of all mankind.
    --Goldsmith.

  2. Produced by, or expressive of, sympathy.

    Ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.
    --Gray.

  3. (Physiol.)

    1. Produced by sympathy; -- applied particularly to symptoms or affections. See Sympathy.

    2. Of or relating to the sympathetic nervous system or some of its branches; produced by stimulation on the sympathetic nervious system or some part of it; as, the sympathetic saliva, a modified form of saliva, produced from some of the salivary glands by stimulation of a sympathetic nerve fiber.

      Sympathetic ink. (Chem.) See under Ink.

      Sympathetic nerve (Anat.), any nerve of the sympathetic system; especially, the axial chain of ganglions and nerves belonging to the sympathetic system.

      Sympathetic powder (Alchemy), a kind of powder long supposed to be able to cure a wound if applied to the weapon that inflicted it, or even to a portion of the bloody clothes.
      --Dunglison.

      Sympathetic sounds (Physics), sounds produced from solid bodies by means of vibrations which have been communicated to them from some other sounding body, by means of the air or an intervening solid.

      Sympathetic system (Anat.), a system of nerves and nerve ganglions connected with the alimentary canal, the vascular system, and the glandular organs of most vertebrates, and controlling more or less their actions. The axial part of the system and its principal ganglions and nerves are situated in the body cavity and form a chain of ganglions on each side of the vertebral column connected with numerous other ganglions and nerve plexuses.

Usage examples of "sympathetic sounds".

He could not understand why they did not laugh with scorn and demand the truth, but his friends nodded, accepting, and made sympathetic sounds as they gathered around the Aes Sedai to show her what they had found.

She hears missis Savage and missis Wells make murmurous sympathetic sounds but she doesn't look up.

So he made what he hoped might sound like soothing, sympathetic sounds, and let her run down.

She set the tray on a coffee table and helped him with the blouse, making sympathetic sounds over the shoulder wound.

I didn't have a response to any of this so I made sympathetic sounds and let it go at that.

I'll mention my moods, blue or otherwise, and her voice will make the appropriately sympathetic sounds.

Coulter made sympathetic sounds and put the drink into the monkey's hands while she mopped Lyra's eyes with a scented handkerchief.