Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Sympathetic?

\Sym`pa*thet"ic\, a. [See {Sympathy}, and cf. {Pathetic}.] 1. Inclined to sympathy; sympathizing. Far wiser he, whose sympathetic mind Exults in all the good of all mankind. --Goldsmith. 2. Produced by, or expressive of, sympathy. Ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears. --Gray. 3. (Physiol.) (a) Produced by sympathy; -- applied particularly to symptoms or affections. See {Sympathy}. (b) Of or relating to the sympathetic nervous system or some of its branches; produced by stimulation on the sympathetic nervious system or some part of it; as, the sympathetic saliva, a modified form of saliva, produced from some of the salivary glands by stimulation of a sympathetic nerve fiber. {Sympathetic ink}. (Chem.) See under {Ink}. {Sympathetic nerve} (Anat.), any nerve of the sympathetic system; especially, the axial chain of ganglions and nerves belonging to the sympathetic system. {Sympathetic powder} (Alchemy), a kind of powder long supposed to be able to cure a wound if applied to the weapon that inflicted it, or even to a portion of the bloody clothes. --Dunglison. {Sympathetic sounds} (Physics), sounds produced from solid bodies by means of vibrations which have been communicated to them from some other sounding body, by means of the air or an intervening solid. {Sympathetic system} (Anat.), a system of nerves and nerve ganglions connected with the alimentary canal, the vascular system, and the glandular organs of most vertebrates, and controlling more or less their actions. The axial part of the system and its principal ganglions and nerves are situated in the body cavity and form a chain of ganglions on each side of the vertebral column connected with numerous other ganglions and nerve plexuses.