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Sympathy   /sˈɪmpəθi/   Listen
noun
Sympathy  n.  (pl. sympathies)  
1.
Feeling corresponding to that which another feels; the quality of being affected by the affection of another, with feelings correspondent in kind, if not in degree; fellow-feeling. "They saw, but other sight instead a crowd Of ugly serpents! Horror on them fell, And horrid sympathy."
2.
An agreement of affections or inclinations, or a conformity of natural temperament, which causes persons to be pleased, or in accord, with one another; as, there is perfect sympathy between them.
3.
Kindness of feeling toward one who suffers; pity; commiseration; compassion. "I value myself upon sympathy, I hate and despise myself for envy."
4.
(Physiol. & Med.)
(a)
The reciprocal influence exercised by organs or parts on one another, as shown in the effects of a diseased condition of one part on another part or organ, as in the vomiting produced by a tumor of the brain.
(b)
The influence of a certain psychological state in one person in producing a like state in another. Note: In the original 1890 work, sense (b) was described as: "That relation which exists between different persons by which one of them produces in the others a state or condition like that of himself. This is shown in the tendency to yawn which a person often feels on seeing another yawn, or the strong inclination to become hysteric experienced by many women on seeing another person suffering with hysteria."
5.
A tendency of inanimate things to unite, or to act on each other; as, the sympathy between the loadstone and iron. (R.)
6.
Similarity of function, use office, or the like. "The adverb has most sympathy with the verb."
Synonyms: Pity; fellow-feeling; compassion; commiseration; tenderness; condolence; agreement. Sympathy, Commiseration. Sympathy is literally a fellow-feeling with others in their varied conditions of joy or of grief. This term, however, is now more commonly applied to a fellow-feeling with others under affliction, and then coincides very nearly with commiseration. In this case it is commonly followed by for; as, to feel sympathy for a friend when we see him distressed. The verb sympathize is followed by with; as, to sympathize with a friend in his distresses or enjoyments. "Every man would be a distinct species to himself, were there no sympathy among individuals." See Pity. "Fault, Acknowledged and deplored, in Adam wrought Commiseration."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Sympathy" Quotes from Famous Books



... decade or more preceding the Civil War the political sentiment of Washington, especially in reference to the violent anti-slavery agitation then engrossing the thought of the country, was decidedly in sympathy with the attitude of the South. It is not, therefore, surprising that Sumner, whose radical views were known from Maine to Texas, should have been received at first in Washington society with but little cordiality. As the years passed along, he was rapidly forging himself ...
— As I Remember - Recollections of American Society during the Nineteenth Century • Marian Gouverneur
... longer account of myself and my travels than I intended, gentlemen, but I wished to interest you," continued the stranger. "I trust that I have done so already. What I have further to tell you will, I hope, excite your sympathy and commiseration, and induce you to accede to the request I have to make. I awoke just before sunset, and descending from my tree hastened towards the village, now bathed in the calm glow of the evening. ...
— Fred Markham in Russia - The Boy Travellers in the Land of the Czar • W. H. G. Kingston
... Field-Marshal did not forget that he was the son-in-law of the Austrian Archduke Ranieri; it is probable, if not proved, that he expected to find him pliable; but Radetsky, besides being a politician of the purest blood-and-iron type, was an old soldier with not a bad heart, and some of his sympathy is to be ascribed to a veteran's natural admiration for a daring ...
— The Liberation of Italy • Countess Evelyn Martinengo-Cesaresco
... that it would be highly inconvenient for him to move from one portion of it to another to measure a single farm; that when several are applied for in the same vicinity, he will proceed there; in the meantime he has several months' work where he is, or the District-Surveyor may, after expressing sympathy with the applicant's loss from delay, candidly assure him that, in consequence of the great delay in receiving pay for his public work, he is absolutely necessitated to accept private employment in order to obtain sufficient cash to keep himself ...
— A Source Book Of Australian History • Compiled by Gwendolen H. Swinburne
... "let us say no more upon the subject, I beg of you. You have misunderstood me, all sympathy is extinct ...
— The Three Musketeers • Alexandre Dumas, Pere


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