Sympathy
['sɪmpəθɪ] or ['sɪmpəθi]
Definition
(noun.) an inclination to support or be loyal to or to agree with an opinion; 'his sympathies were always with the underdog'; 'I knew I could count on his understanding'.
(noun.) sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish).
(noun.) a relation of affinity or harmony between people; whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other; 'the two of them were in close sympathy'.
Typed by Darla--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) 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.
(n.) 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.
(n.) Kindness of feeling toward one who suffers; pity; commiseration; compassion.
(n.) The reciprocal influence exercised by the various organs or parts of the body on one another, as manifested in the transmission of a disease by unknown means from one organ to another quite remote, or in the influence exerted by a diseased condition of one part on another part or organ, as in the vomiting produced by a tumor of the brain.
(n.) 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.
(n.) A tendency of inanimate things to unite, or to act on each other; as, the sympathy between the loadstone and iron.
(n.) Similarity of function, use office, or the like.
Checked by Bertrand
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Compassion, commiseration, condolence, pity, tenderness, kindliness, fellow-feeling, bowels of compassion.[2]. Agreement, harmony, correspondence, correlation, affinity, union, concert.[3]. Mutual influence.
Editor: Stacy
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Fellow-feeling, congeniality, commiseration, compassion, pity, concert,tenderness, agreement, condolence
ANT:Antipathy, antagonism, incongeniality, pitilessness, mercilessness,compassionlessness, unkindness, harshness, unkindliness
Checked by Bianca
Definition
n. like feeling: an agreement of inclination feeling or sensation: compassion: pity: tenderness: an agreement of affections or inclinations or a conformity of natural temperament: mutual conformity of parts in the fine arts: correspondence of parts in similar sensations or affections or the affection of the whole body or system or some part of it in consequence of local injury or disease: propensity of inanimate bodies to union or mutual action: the effective union of colours.—adjs. Sympathet′ic -al showing or inclined to sympathy: feeling with another: able to sympathise: compassionate: produced by sympathy: uniting viscera and blood-vessels in a nervous action common to them all: noting sounds induced by vibrations conveyed through air &c. from a body already in vibration.—adv. Sympathet′ically.—n. Sympathet′icism undue disipostion to be sympathetic.—v.i. Sym′pathise to have sympathy: to feel with or for another: to be compassionate.—ns. Sym′pathiser; Sym′pathism; Sym′pathist.—Sympathetic ink (see Ink).
Checked by Elaine
Unserious Contents or Definition
Feeling for others; very noticeable in Blind Man's Buff.
Checker: Raymond
Examples
- I will discipline my sorrowing heart to sympathy in your joys; I will be happy, because ye are so. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- And it was so delightful that this higher degree of sympathy should be reached through their interest in Lily Bart! Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- When he had spoken some sound words of sympathy and encouragement, we sat down to consider the question, What was to be done? Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- The honest face, so full of grief, and with such an imploring expression of affection and sympathy, struck his master. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- I wish you _would_ have some kind of sympathy for my trials; you never have any feeling for me. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- I have no softness there, no--sympathy--sentiment--nonsense. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- The Commissioners had a good deal of sympathy for the prostitute's condition, but for that lust in the hearts of men, and women we may add, for that, they had no sympathetic understanding. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- No sympathy may I ever find. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- Now the pleasure of a stranger, for whom we have no friendship, pleases us only by sympathy. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- Now this being once admitted, the force of sympathy must necessarily be acknowledged. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- Mr. Hale's ever-ready sympathy with anything of shyness or hesitation, or want of self-possession, made him come to his aid. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- But it was not so; I was the same in strength, in earnest craving for sympathy, in my yearning for active exertion. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- There was no sympathy, no redemption, no redress! Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- In fact, I am neither so strong, nor have I such pride in my strength, as people think, Mr. Moore; nor am I so regardless of sympathy. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Oh yes, sir, cried she with ready sympathy, how you must miss her! Jane Austen. Emma.
- My sympathies are not for my father's race, but for my mother's. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- I mean, that human affections and sympathies have a most powerful hold on you. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- But even human sympathies were not sufficient to satisfy his eager mind. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- I know how he has narrowed the circle of his sympathies and duties, in the concentration of his whole mind upon me. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Pray present my best respects and sympathies to Lady Glyde. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- Now, an aristocrat, you know, the world over, has no human sympathies, beyond a certain line in society. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- Its founder desired while benefiting the poor to enlist th e sympathies of the fashionable world. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- You may skirmish with Miss Dartle, or try to hide your sympathies in jest from me, but I know better. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- He continued-- You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- You object--see, sir, how my sympathies look straight down into your thoughts! Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- How many old recollections, and how many dormant sympathies, does Christmas time awaken! Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- Are they in harmony with the sympathies of Christ? Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- And signs, for aught we know, may be but the sympathies of Nature with man. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- I used sometimes to hear my mother reasoning cases with him,--endeavoring to excite his sympathies. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- But the sympathies of the latter were with the mother? Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
Typed by Julie