Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sympathize \Sym"pa*thize\, v. t.
To experience together. [Obs.] ``This sympathized . . . error.''
--Shak.To ansew to; to correspond to. [Obs.]
--Shak.
Sympathize \Sym"pa*thize\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Sympathized; p. pr. & vb. n. Sympathizing.] [F. sympathiser. See Sympathy.]
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To have a common feeling, as of bodily pleasure or pain.
The mind will sympathize so much with the anguish and debility of the body, that it will be too distracted to fix itself in meditation.
--Buckminster. -
To feel in consequence of what another feels; to be affected by feelings similar to those of another, in consequence of knowing the person to be thus affected.
Their countrymen . . . sympathized with their heroes in all their adventures.
--Addison. To agree; to be in accord; to harmonize.
--Dryden.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"have fellow-feeling," c.1600, from Middle French sympathiser, from sympathie (see sympathy). Earlier in a physiological sense (1590s). As "express sympathy," from 1748. Related: Sympathized; sympathizing.
Wiktionary
vb. 1 To show sympathy; to be affected by feelings similar to those of another, in consequence of knowing the person to be thus affected. 2 To have a common feeling, as of bodily pleasure or pain. 3 To agree; to be in accord; to harmonize.
WordNet
v. share the feelings of; understand the sentiments of [syn: sympathise]
be understanding of; "You don't need to explain--I understand!" [syn: sympathise, empathize, empathise, understand]
to feel or express sympathy or compassion [syn: commiserate, sympathise]
Usage examples of "sympathize".
Very well, we will ask the head of a foreign State to appoint an arbitrator by whom they will be considered and annulled in the event of his sympathizing with you.
Mister Atflee would have sympathized with Paul Adams in respect of the trouble he had with his own left-wing firebrand, Lulu Saunders.
What business did someone who sympathized with a cross-burning bigot have sitting on the second highest court in the land?
I determined to keep him good company, and to soften the bitterness of his imprisonment, and so well did I sympathize with his position that I forgot all about my own.
Who had sympathized with her desire to reject Eldership and had promised to take that decision from the hands of the family and clan leaders and to put it instead into hers.
If there is any poor mortal who can not afford to be deprived of the aid of a sympathizing Saviour, it is one who has enervated his will, degraded his soul, and depraved his body by the vile habit of self-abuse.
His eulogy on Calhoun, with whom in general he sympathized, was a masterpiece of eloquence, but his eulogy on Charles Sumner, which probably no other man in the South could have uttered without political death, was greater still.
His offense must surely have been commerce, active and profitable, with Rebeldom, for he never can have sympathized with any living thing.
For one crazy moment he could almost sympathize with Ryis and his henchmen trying to deal with the overwhelming number of Gamon.
Others sympathized fully with what was called the Southern cause, held firmly the right of secession, and hated cordially the Yankees, but doubted either the practicability or the expediency of secession, and opposed it till resolved on, but, after it was resolved on, yielded to none in their earnest support of it.
Ideas, and fully sympathized with his warmly-glowing and poetic utterance of philosophic truths.
Belisarius sympathized alone in the fate of his deserted and devoted friends.
From his prison he escaped to the Vatican: the duke of Spoleto hastened to his rescue, Charlemagne sympathized in his injury, and in his camp of Paderborn in Westphalia accepted, or solicited, a visit from the Roman pontiff.
Among the Barbarians there were many, whose spontaneous virtue supplied their laws and corrected their manners, who performed the duties, and sympathized with the affections, of social life.
Yet they dissembled till they had obtained, or stolen, a safe passage to the Italian continent: their brethren of Aversa sympathized in their indignation, and the province of Apulia was invaded as the forfeit of the debt.