Definition of "sympathize"
sympathize
verb
third-person singular simple present sympathizes, present participle sympathizing, simple past and past participle sympathized
(intransitive) 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.
Quotations
[…] 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.
2023 December 23 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “SATURDAY, December 12, 2023”, in The Spectator, number 273; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853
Some old people keep young at heart in spite of wrinkles and gray hairs, can sympathize with children’s little cares and joys, make them feel at home, and can hide wise lessons under pleasant plays, giving and receiving friendship in the sweetest way.
1868–1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 19, in Little Women: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers
(intransitive) To support, favour, have sympathy (with a political cause or movement, a side in a conflict / in an action).
Quotations
“Whether one sympathises with the agitation for female suffrage or not one has to admit that its promoters showed tireless energy and considerable enterprise in devising and putting into action new methods for accomplishing their ends. […] ”
1919, Saki, “The Threat”, in The Toys of Peace and Other Papers, London: John Lane, page 150
[…] naturally the British aristocracy sympathized with the Confederacy, as one aristocrat with another, against a race of dollar lovers like the Yankees.
1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter 9, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, part II, page 171
(transitive, obsolete) To share (a feeling or experience).
Quotations
And all that are assembled in this place,That by this sympathized one day’s errorHave suffer’d wrong, go keep us company,And we shall make full satisfaction.
c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene i]
(intransitive) To agree; to be in accord; to harmonize.
Quotations
Henry V. The southern windDoth play the trumpet to his purposes,And by his hollow whistling in the leavesForetells a tempest and a blustering day.Henry IV. Then with the losers let it sympathize,For nothing can seem foul to those that win.
c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene i]
Then personal appearance sympathised with mental deterioration: he acquired a slouching gait and ignoble look; his naturally reserved disposition was exaggerated into an almost idiotic excess of unsociable moroseness […]
1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter 8, in Wuthering Heights, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […]