[f. as prec. + -ER1.] One who or that which sympathizes; esp. one disposed to agree with or approve a party, cause, etc.; a backer-up.
1815. Jane Austen, Emma, III. vi. His patient listener and sympathizer.
1838. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1812), IV. 336. A new name is invented for the sufferers [sc. U.S. citizens taken in the Canadian insurrection]—Sympathisers.
1865. J. S. Mill, in Evening Star, 10 July. Lovers of England,… sympathisers with the English people.
1888. Burgon, Lives 12 Gd. Men, II. v. 46. There never was a more enthusiastic sympathizer with his Clergy.
1901. Dorland, Med. Dict. (ed. 2), Sympathizer … an eye which becomes inflamed through sympathy with disease of its fellow.
1918. Times, Lit. Supp., 14 March, 123/1. Our Balkan allies and sympathizers.
