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Sympathize

verb

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To have, show or express sympathy; to be affected by feelings similar to those of another, in consequence of knowing the person to be thus affected Canada, US, intransitive

    "[…] the Authors having chosen for their Heroes Persons who were so nearly related to the People for whom they wrote. Achilles was a Greek, and Aeneas the remote Founder of Rome. By this Means their Countrymen (whom they principally proposed to themselves for their Readers) were particularly attentive to all the Parts of their Story, and sympathized with their Heroes in all their Adventures."

  2. 2
    be understanding of wordnet
  3. 3
    To support, favour, have sympathy (with a political cause or movement, a side in a conflict / in an action). Canada, US, intransitive

    "‘[…] who is to hunt up my witnesses? All of them are sailors, drafted off to other ships, except those whose evidence would go for very little, as they took part, or sympathised in the affair. […]’"

  4. 4
    to feel or express sympathy or compassion wordnet
  5. 5
    To say in an expression of sympathy. Canada, US, transitive

    "“How much he slapped my sons—you should see their swollen faces, Panditji,” said Dukhi. […] “Poor children,” sympathized Pandit Lallaram."

Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    share the feelings of; understand the sentiments of wordnet
  2. 7
    To have a common feeling, as of bodily pleasure or pain. Canada, US, intransitive

    "[…] 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."

  3. 8
    To share (a feeling or experience). Canada, US, obsolete, transitive

    "And all that are assembled in this place, That by this sympathized one day’s error Have suffer’d wrong, go keep us company, And we shall make full satisfaction."

  4. 9
    To agree; to be in accord; to harmonize. Canada, US, intransitive

    "Henry V. The southern wind Doth play the trumpet to his purposes, And by his hollow whistling in the leaves Foretells a tempest and a blustering day. Henry IV. Then with the losers let it sympathize, For nothing can seem foul to those that win."

Etymology

Borrowed from French sympathiser. By surface analysis, sympathy + -ize. Displaced native Old English efnþrōwian (literally “to suffer with or together”).

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