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What is "sympathetic"

Crossword clues for sympathetic

sympathetic
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
sympathetic
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a sympathetic character (=one you like)
▪ In the book, Jeff isn’t a sympathetic character.
be sympathetic to a cause (=understand an aim, and possibly support it)
▪ They hope the new President will be sympathetic to their cause.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
less
▪ I must admit that I was less sympathetic than I should have been.
more
▪ And they include cases where a more sympathetic attitude from the lender would be more helpful.
▪ Otherwise I could have brought myself to be more sympathetic.
▪ Historians of the Poor Law have discerned a more sympathetic attitude towards the settled poor and even in respect of removal proceedings.
▪ She reported that since she had left hospital her parents had been more sympathetic towards her.
▪ Resurrected here, he is considerably more sympathetic, and his last four wives wrestle with their feelings for him.
▪ If the school felt it could not cope with Balbinder then maybe he would be better in a more sympathetic environment.
▪ Some experts claim that a heel-and-toe weighted club is more sympathetic to a mishit.
most
▪ Cornelius Nepos wrote a most sympathetic sketch of Hannibal.
▪ I guess he'd picked De Gaulle as the most sympathetic and scholarly-looking.
▪ Regular perusal will make clear which journalists might be most sympathetic to your particular style.
▪ You see, even the most sympathetic of employers may not be able to afford to carry on paying you.
▪ Identify the local politicians who are likely to be the most sympathetic.
▪ Gwendolen, still clad in dark blue, was indefatigably marching with the party next to a most sympathetic lady.
▪ Protschka makes a most sympathetic impression.
very
▪ He put this to Gina but she was not very sympathetic.
▪ Initially I was appalled by the Princes' racism, but I ended up being very sympathetic to them.
▪ Though very sympathetic and sensitive to the needs of the birth family most adopters did not feel they could cope with contact.
▪ She was very sympathetic, Bern.
▪ Mr and Mrs Wilson had been very sympathetic.
▪ He has a very sympathetic approach to people and to the problems that people have.
▪ Mr. Waldegrave I am very sympathetic to comments like that.
▪ I tried to look very understanding, very sympathetic, but it seemed to frighten him.
■ NOUN
character
▪ Charles didn't find many sympathetic characters among the cast.
▪ The reader zooms through the story hoping for a resolution that will satisfy the mystery without sacrificing any of the sympathetic characters.
ear
▪ His profession would surely mean that he would listen to my request with a sympathetic ear.
▪ For all of its own bureaucratic strictures, the diplomatic corps had the sympathetic ears that Liang was looking for.
▪ The general wards were packed with acute cases and, although I received a sympathetic ear, no one really wanted to know.
▪ If disaster strikes again, he expects to find a sympathetic ear at the White House.
▪ Our sinister cop is able to exploit that weakness by offering a sympathetic ear.
▪ She offers advice, information and sometimes just a sympathetic ear to worried pet owners of Cleveland.
▪ There had always been a sympathetic ear for her clients, and she longed to pour out all her troubles right away.
▪ I dread having to go through the sympathetic ear act, even when it's merited.
figure
▪ But now he, or she, needs to be an even broader, more sympathetic figure than before.
listener
▪ It will give you the opportunity to discuss your problems with a sympathetic listener.
response
▪ They need a sympathetic response, that is understandable and starts at the beginning.
▪ The droid virtually knew hir life-history now and had made appropriately sympathetic responses.
▪ I recalled those days at school and looked for a sympathetic response.
▪ There was a sympathetic response immediately.
treatment
▪ Nigel and I were, above all, struck by the sympathetic treatment of an area which could so easily be spoiled.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a good/sympathetic listener
▪ And apart from the information you get, being a good listener helps the other side to relax and have confidence in you.
▪ Be a good listener and do not demand that children reveal all that they do or think.
▪ In the Collins family, Kevin was not actually told stories about how he, too, was a good listener.
▪ It will give you the opportunity to discuss your problems with a sympathetic listener.
▪ Lady Thatcher never drew breath, while John Major was a good listener.
▪ People liked her because she was steady, sensible, a good listener.
▪ Seek not only to be understood but to understand-be a good listener.
▪ Zach said he was a good listener and that he was a sensitive being.
a sympathetic ear
▪ Taler says she tried to offer the student a sympathetic ear.
▪ For people with mental health problems, a sympathetic ear and understanding is an essential part of their rehabilitation.
▪ His profession would surely mean that he would listen to my request with a sympathetic ear.
▪ If disaster strikes again, he expects to find a sympathetic ear at the White House.
▪ It may be essential for you to have a sympathetic ear if you run into difficulties.
▪ Our sinister cop is able to exploit that weakness by offering a sympathetic ear.
▪ She offers advice, information and sometimes just a sympathetic ear to worried pet owners of Cleveland.
▪ The general wards were packed with acute cases and, although I received a sympathetic ear, no one really wanted to know.
▪ There had always been a sympathetic ear for her clients, and she longed to pour out all her troubles right away.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Dr. Williams is such a sympathetic person.
▪ Kramer nodded sympathetically.
▪ My friends were all extremely sympathetic when they heard I'd lost my job.
▪ Noticing my embarrassment, the teacher gave me a sympathetic smile.
▪ She listened sympathetically to all our complaints.
▪ Try being a bit more sympathetic towards her -- you might get better results.
▪ Why don't you talk to Elizabeth? She's always sympathetic.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Both seem sympathetic to pragmatist arguments, but neither has been willing to push abortion as an issue.
▪ The high point of his campaign came in three lengthy and unscripted television interviews with a sympathetic journalist.
▪ The other tenured faculty, including those whom Gordon considered marginally sympathetic, would remain quiet or chip in their own criticisms.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sympathetic

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.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
sympathetic

1640s, "pertaining to sympathy," from Modern Latin sympatheticus, from late Greek sympathetikos "having sympathy," from sympathein, from sympathes "having a fellow feeling, affected by like feelings" (see sympathy). In English, the meaning "having fellow feeling, susceptible to altruistic feelings" is recorded from 1718.\n

\nIn the anatomical sense, "subject to a common nervous influence," the word is attested from 1769, from Modern Latin (nervus) sympathicus, coined by Jacques-Benigne Winslow (1669-1760), Danish anatomist living in Paris. Related: Sympathetical (1630s); Sympathetically (1620s).

Wiktionary
sympathetic

a. 1 Of, related to, showing, or characterized by sympathy. 2 Of or relating to similarity. alt. 1 Of, related to, showing, or characterized by sympathy. 2 Of or relating to similarity.

Related phrases:
WordNet
sympathetic

  1. adj. of or relating to the sympathetic nervous system; "sympathetic neurons"; "sympathetic stimulation"

  2. expressing or feeling or resulting from sympathy or compassion or friendly fellow feelings; disposed toward; "sympathetic to the students' cause"; "a sympathetic observer"; "a sympathetic gesture" [ant: unsympathetic]

  3. having similar disposition and tastes; "a compatible married couple"; "with their many similar tastes, he found her a most sympathetic companion" [syn: compatible]

  4. showing or motivated by sympathy and understanding and generosity; "was charitable in his opinions of others"; "kindly criticism"; "a kindly act"; "sympathetic words"; "a large-hearted mentor" [syn: charitable, kindly, large-hearted]

  5. (of characters in literature or drama) evoking empathic or sympathetic feelings; "the sympathetic characters in the play" [syn: appealing, likeable, likable] [ant: unsympathetic]

  6. relating to vibrations that occur as a result of vibrations in a nearby body; "sympathetic vibration" [syn: harmonic]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Sympathetic

Sympathetic may refer to:

  • Sympathy, in psychology, a feeling of compassion or identification with another
  • Sympathetic detonation, a detonation, usually unintended, of an explosive charge by a nearby explosion
  • Sympathetic magic, in religion, magic, and anthropology, the belief that like affects like, that something can be influenced through its relationship with another thing
  • Sympathetic nervous system, in neurology and neuroscience, a part of the autonomic nervous system
  • Sympathetic resonance, a harmonic phenomenon wherein a body responds to external vibrations
  • Sympathetic strings, in music theory, strings on a musical instrument that resonate without contact
  • "Sympathetic", a song by Seether from Disclaimer II
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "sympathetic".

That quest was abetted by a sympathetic schoolteacher, Rebecca, who saw in the lad a glimmering hope that occasionally there might be resurrection from a bitter life sentence in the emotionally barren and aesthetically vitiated Kentucky hamlet, and who ultimately seduced him.

Molly was very sympathetic to Aboriginal people and treated them kindly.

The sympathetic system, and the adrenal medulla, too, are not necessary for life, except insofar as failure to react properly to an emergency may be fatal.

The adrenal medulla can be removed and sympathetic nerves can be cut without fatal results.

Though burdened by the giant molecules, his sympathetic nervous system and adrenal glands, which were particularly affected in others, were quite indifferent to the asps.

Arnold, was a writer and historian whose energetic advocacy of liberal ideas and international, liberal movements soon attracted the attention of sympathetic and hostile readers.

He had been released temporarily from duty in the aerology lab but McDevitt, who was a tactful and sympathetic person and had been aware of the friendship developing between the boy and Beetchermarlf.

Baru, called the Serpentslayer, and as a result, Akee was considered very sympathetic to the Kingdom, a quality not universal among the independent and tough-minded hill people of Yabon.

Marius among the ruins of Carthage, was waiting for the two lodgers that yet remained to her, and bemoaning her lot with the sympathetic Sylvie.

Justice of the Peace Jim Buce, who also ran the feed store, was sympathetic, but said that the boy had to be taught some sort of lesson.

The start was followed by a shout, which passed swiftly along the canal, and an eager agitation of heads that went from balcony to balcony, till the sympathetic movement was communicated to the grave load under which the Bucentaur labored.

Certainly the canaille were beginning to imagine the monarch spontaneously sympathetic to their cause.

Snell reports a case in which a piece of steel was imbedded and encapsulated in the ciliary process twenty-nine years without producing sympathetic irritation of its fellow, but causing such pain as to warrant enucleation of this eye.

Kidder knew that he could, for the time being, expect more sympathetic treatment from Conant than he could from a horde of government investigators.

He put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder and squeezed past in the narrow space of the rear entry, lightly kissed her, and took her with him through the kitchen to the living room, where she stood embarrassed in the midst of a yawn while he darted forward and drew down on a cord which advanced dark curtains across the bow window.