SYMPATHISE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sympathise mean? 

• SYMPATHISE (verb)
  The verb SYMPATHISE has 3 senses:

1. share the feelings of; understand the sentiments of

2. to feel or express sympathy or compassion

3. be understanding of

  Familiarity information: SYMPATHISE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SYMPATHISE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they sympathise    ... he / she / it sympathises   
Past simple: sympathised   
Past participle: sympathised   
-ing form: sympathising   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Share the feelings of; understand the sentiments of

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

sympathise; sympathize

Hypernyms (to "sympathise" is one way to...):

experience; feel (undergo an emotional sensation or be in a particular state of mind)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

sympathiser (someone who shares your feelings or opinions and hopes that you will be successful)

sympathy (a relation of affinity or harmony between people; whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other)

Sense 2

Meaning:

To feel or express sympathy or compassion

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

commiserate; sympathise; sympathize

Hypernyms (to "sympathise" is one way to...):

compassionate; condole with; feel for; pity; sympathize with (share the suffering of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "sympathise"):

condole (express one's sympathetic grief, on the occasion of someone's death)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

sympathiser (a person who commiserates with someone who has had misfortune)

sympathy (sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Be understanding of

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

empathise; empathize; sympathise; sympathize; understand

Context example:

You don't need to explain--I understand!

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

sympathy (an inclination to support or be loyal to or to agree with an opinion)

 Context examples 

I sympathise with poor Desdemona when she had such a dangerous stream poured in her ear, even by a black man.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Susan was always ready to hear and to sympathise.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I have longed for a friend; I have sought one who would sympathise with and love me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

"They do get on the nerves horrible," Henry sympathised.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

She could only resolve to avoid such self-delusion in future, and think with heightened gratitude of the extraordinary blessing of having one such truly sympathising friend as Lady Russell.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I heard her with wonder: I could not comprehend this doctrine of endurance; and still less could I understand or sympathise with the forbearance she expressed for her chastiser.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There was a kind of cold hearted selfishness on both sides, which mutually attracted them; and they sympathised with each other in an insipid propriety of demeanor, and a general want of understanding.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Be assured, my dear sir, that Mrs. Collins and myself sincerely sympathise with you and all your respectable family, in your present distress, which must be of the bitterest kind, because proceeding from a cause which no time can remove.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Time, she knew, must be allowed for this being thoroughly done; and she could suppose herself but an indifferent judge of such matters in general, and very inadequate to sympathise in an attachment to Mr. Elton in particular; but it seemed to her reasonable that at Harriet's age, and with the entire extinction of all hope, such a progress might be made towards a state of composure by the time of Mr. Elton's return, as to allow them all to meet again in the common routine of acquaintance, without any danger of betraying sentiments or increasing them.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

You will understand now how it was that I strove to keep the peace with him, and you will in some measure sympathise with me in the fears which fill me, now that he has gone from me to his other victim with threats upon his tongue.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)