sympathize

sympathize with (someone or something)

1. To feel or express compassion for what someone is experiencing or feeling. We're so sorry for your loss, Mike. I just wanted to let you know that we all sympathize with you. I really sympathize with her plight—it's just such an awful situation, with no clear solution.
2. To share or understand the thoughts, ideas, ambitions, etc., of someone or something else. We certainly sympathize with your intentions, Ms. Connors, but there are certain issues that make this much more difficult to implement than you're suggesting. Thankfully the board of directors sympathized with our team and what we were trying to accomplish.
See also: sympathize
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

sympathize with someone (about someone or something)

to share someone else's sorrow or anger about someone or something; to comfort someone who is sad or angry (about someone or something). I sympathize with you about what you are going through. I really sympathize with you.
See also: sympathize
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • sympathize with
  • sympathize with (someone or something)
  • in (one's) prayers
  • in prayers
  • (one's) heart goes out to (someone)
  • harden (one's) heart against (someone or something)
  • harden your heart against somebody/something
  • steel (one's) heart against (someone or something)
  • steel one's heart against
  • take pity
References in periodicals archive
Christians -- Protestants and Catholics alike -- sympathize more with religious leaders, while nonreligious Americans side more solidly with the Obama administration.
supporters: 80% sympathize more with the Israelis in the conflict, substantially higher than the 57% of independents and Democrats sharing this view.
Additionally, adults aged 18 to 34 are slightly less likely than those 55 and older to sympathize with the Israelis.
The poll also suggests liberal Democrats sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis, 39 percent to 33 percent, respectively.
We mourn the loss of precious lives and completely sympathize with Your Excellency and the people of Chile in bearing this enormous national calamity, the Prime Minister said in his message to the Chilean President.
One fifth sympathizes more with the Palestinians, the poll showed, the highest number by one point in Gallup's trend since 2001.
(It's sad that there were many minors who died in the government's bloody campaign against drugs, but it's only now that the President sympathizes. Nevertheless, the fight for justice continues.)
Summary: Saudi Arabia said Sunday it would punish anyone who belongs to Hezbollah, sympathizes with it, finances it or harbors its members.
"There is one party in the country which sympathizes with the Syrian people and another side regrettably which sympathizes with the Syrian regime.
Students might say that because influenza can be a deadly virus, the cartoonist sympathizes with people who are forced to rely on unusual methods to acquire the vaccine.
According to a number of reports, Danish director Lars Von Trier was banned from the Cannes Film Festival after he made comments during a press conference about how he "sympathizes" with Adolf Hitler and that he is a Nazi.
Since some gay men are "powerfully attracted" to boys, Peters writes, he sympathizes with the Scouts' efforts to block homosexuals from becoming scoutmasters.
(That's all Panama was, a transshipment point that the Colombian cocaine cartels could and did map around when it was eventually shut down.) He sympathizes with the federal prosecutor who complains bitterly that Washington won't twist Spain's arm for the extradition of a Colombian narcotrafficker because it might mean the loss of all U.S.
Foreman understands this yearning for accountability; he sympathizes with a desire for "livable" communities.
Although Fraser sympathizes with the monarchy she also shows that France needed much more than a well-meaning monarch manipulated and ruled by an extravagant court riddled with intrigue and indifference to the needs of the people.