What's the difference between compassionate and sympathetic?

Compassionate


Definition:

  • (a.) Having a temper or disposition to pity; sympathetic; merciful.
  • (a.) Complaining; inviting pity; pitiable.
  • (v. t.) To have compassion for; to pity; to commiserate; to sympathize with.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) He added that the appearance this week on Libyan television of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi showed it had been a mistake by the Scottish justice minister to release him on compassionate grounds in 2009.
  • (2) The Frenchman has been excused from duty at Everton on Saturday on compassionate grounds and the club have put no time frame on his possible return.
  • (3) This was greeted by a furious wall of sound from Labour, which only grew when he added: "The last government failed to prioritise compassionate care … they tried to shut down the whistleblowers …" It was pure party-political point-scoring, matched in spades by Labour's Andy Burnham.
  • (4) Matthew d’Ancona : She’s a risk-taker, and a potentially transformative leader Theresa May may be a compassionate Conservative, but her arrival in Downing Street has been anything but a velvet revolution.
  • (5) These people have travelled for hundreds of miles to reach us, I wanted to show what British justice meant, to show him the character of this country is actually compassionate.” The man had £35 on a top-up card to use in specified shops, and was not allowed to take any form of work.
  • (6) Megrahi, who is dying of prostate cancer, was freed by Scotland on compassionate grounds after serving eight years of a life sentence over the attack.
  • (7) We all have our own unique DNA and our own life experiences.” But rather than run from the family name entirely, the former Florida governor is appealing instead to his party’s sense of noblesse oblige – crafting a new version of his brother’s somewhat faded brand of compassionate conservatism.
  • (8) He fulfilled a difficult role in a progressive and compassionate way … he has done his utmost to transform the CPS's record on rape and domestic violence, delivering improved conviction rates for both.
  • (9) They had announced Thursday that "as a result of our public appeal for help, a courageous and compassionate individual came forward to provide the assistance needed to properly bury the deceased."
  • (10) The pledge to meet the international aid target is one of the few remaining vestiges of the pre-government, compassionate Conservative Cameron.
  • (11) When I look at photographs that try to move the world to compassionate action I am haunted by Jurgen Stroop .
  • (12) Evidence from America, and from the 15 NHS hospitals that have so far introduced them, shows that Schwartz Centre Rounds "help hospital and care staff support each other and learn about how to deal better with tough situations, and spend more time focussed on caring for patients in a compassionate way", he added.
  • (13) He said: “Among the horror of the refugee crisis, one of the most harrowing images has been the thousands of orphaned children fleeing conflict.” “Britain has always been a compassionate and welcoming country, and I am delighted that the government has finally, after months of pressure, committed to vital humanitarian aid.
  • (14) He said that it had made its decision on compassionate grounds, and that any suggestion that lobbying had taken place was a "matter for BP to answer".
  • (15) She looks at me compassionately, as if I have sunstroke.
  • (16) We are already the most compassionate and generous country in the world and it is not even close.” “No other country provides anywhere near the amount of assistance for hurting people around the world as we do.
  • (17) In the foreword, iconic black activist Angela Davis describes Shakur as a "compassionate human being with an unswerving commitment to justice".
  • (18) Investment in young children is discussed as a prudent as well as a compassionate policy, one which will reduce future health care costs and enhance our position in the international economy.
  • (19) The verdict in the Kay Gilderdale case is further evidence that the law on mercy killing is out of date, experts say, and unable to deal properly with public views on compassionate death and assisted suicide.
  • (20) When it was her turn in front of Mengele [the murderous Auschwitz doctor who notoriously experimented on inmates], my mother told him that she was pregnant, hoping he would be compassionate ... Mengele snapped “ Du dumme gans ” [you stupid goose] and ordered her to the right.” That meant she had been chosen for forced labour, rather than the gas chamber.

Sympathetic


Definition:

  • (a.) Inclined to sympathy; sympathizing.
  • (a.) Produced by, or expressive of, sympathy.
  • (a.) Produced by sympathy; -- applied particularly to symptoms or affections. See Sympathy.
  • (a.) 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.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In dogs, cibenzoline given i.v., had no effects on the slow response systems, probably because of sympathetic nervous system intervention since the class 4 effects of cibenzoline appeared after beta-adrenoceptor blockade.
  • (2) Plasma NPY correlated better with plasma norepinephrine than with epinephrine, indicating its origin from sympathetic nerve terminals.
  • (3) They are best explained by interactions between central sympathetic activity, brainstem control of respiration and vasomotor activity, reflexes arising from around and within the respiratory tract, and the matching of ventilation to perfusion in the lungs.
  • (4) Noradrenaline (NA) was released from sympathetic nerve endings in the tissue by electrical stimulation of the mesenteric nerves or by the indirect sympathomimetic agent tyramine.
  • (5) Following injections of HRP into the apex of the heart, the sinoatrial (SA) nodal region and the ventral wall of the right ventricle, we observed that HRP-labeled sympathetic neurons were localized predominantly in the right stellate ganglia, and to a lesser extent, in the right superior and middle cervical ganglia, and left stellate ganglia.
  • (6) Chick sympathetic nerve fibers densely innervate expansor secundariorum muscle, but not skeletal muscle.
  • (7) Assays of isolated single sympathetic neurones show that their transmitter functions can be either adrenergic or cholinergic depending on growth conditions.
  • (8) The increased sympathetic nervous activity during exercise appears to be a toxic rather than a compensatory effect of alcohol.
  • (9) It is suggested that contractile responses to electrical stimulation in isolated sheep urethral smooth muscle are mediated by the sympathetic nervous system, mainly through release of noradrenaline stimulating postjunctional alpha 1-adrenoceptors.
  • (10) The distinguishing feature of this study is the simultaneous measurement of sympathetic firing and norepinephrine spillover in the same organ, the kidney, under conditions of intact sympathetic impulse traffic.
  • (11) The marine natural product lophotoxin has produced a non-reversible antagonism of parasympathetic and sympathetic functions that are known to be mediated by C6 sub-type nicotinic receptors.
  • (12) The distribution and ultrastructure of lipopigments in the rat sympathetic, vagus and spinal ganglion neurons were studied in vivo and in vitro using fluorescence and electron microscopy.
  • (13) In 27 decerebrate cats under various experimental conditions, we studied the effects of programmed premature ventricular contractions on the impulse activity of preganglionic sympathetic fibres isolated from the third left thoracic ramus.
  • (14) Sympathetic nervous system function was blocked in developing male SHR by treating pups from days 0 to 14 with: (1) guanethidine, (2) combined alpha- and beta-receptor antagonists (prazosin and timolol), or (3) vehicle (5% sucrose).
  • (15) These results show the existence of a depressor response and decreases in HR and RNA in the rabbit mediated by the action of BK on cardiac sympathetic afferents.
  • (16) Finally, fosinopril had no effect on the pressor or chronotropic effects of norepinephrine (NE) or 1,1-dimethyl-4-phenylpiperinium (DMPP) or electrical stimulation of the sympathetic ganglia of pithed rats.
  • (17) Sympathetic nerve stimulation may cause a rise in IASP by its action directly at the IAS smooth muscle partially through release of NPY.
  • (18) In anesthetized cats, the enhancement of sympathetic activity and increase of the blood pressure in exclusion of afferents (section of vagosympathetic trunks and clamping of common carotid arteries) as well as the disappearance of the activity in enhanced afferentation, were shown to be transient and to disappear within a few minutes-scores of minutes in spite of the going on deafferentation or enhancement of afferentation.
  • (19) Stimulus-response characteristics suggested that this system was well suited for a role in tonic inhibition of sympathetic activity.
  • (20) This increase is presumably the result of radiation induced release of their parent amines from the brain; in the case of VMA the secondary response of the peripheral sympathetic system might occur.