[f. as prec. + -ING1.] The action of the verb SYMPATHIZE, q.v., in various senses.
1632. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 81. Among the hidden secrets of nature, that of sympathizing is one of the truest.
1654–66. Earl Orrery, Parthen. (1676), 145. If I am in any trouble, it only proceeds from sympathizing in those disasters you were fallen into.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), II. 362. A universal union, coherence, or sympathizing of things.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., xxii. An old gentlewoman, under pretence of sympathizing, visited me.
