compassionate
[adjective kuh m-pash-uh-nit; verb kuh m-pash-uh-neyt]
- having or showing compassion: a compassionate person; a compassionate letter.
- granted in an emergency: compassionate military leave granted to attend a funeral.
- Obsolete. pitiable.
Show More
- Archaic. to pity or have compassion for.
Show More
Origin of compassionate
Synonyms
See more synonyms for compassionate on Thesaurus.com1. pitying, sympathizing, sympathetic, tender.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for compassionate
Contemporary Examples
There is a procedure called “compassionate release” allowing terminally ill men to die at home.
The compassionate release was cancelled and he was sent back to his cell.
I know there are police officers who are kind, compassionate, and smart.
People were attracted to early Christianity by its compassionate egalitarianism.
Such is the Sierra Leonean way, the most tolerant, compassionate, and friendly people I have found anywhere.
Historical Examples
Our Government must at the same time be both competent and compassionate.
Were you to know how I have suffered, you would be compassionate.
The DreamEmile Zola
He was quite incapable of any compassionate feeling about the boy, or about his fate.
A Tale of Two CitiesCharles Dickens
Not one to save her,––not one of all the compassionate people!
PoemsWilliam D. Howells
The others looked at him and smiled with an air of compassionate superiority.
FruitfulnessEmile Zola
compassionate
- showing or having compassion
- compassionate leave leave granted, esp to a serviceman, on the grounds of bereavement, family illness, etc
Show More
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for compassionate
adj.
1580s, from compassion + -ate (1). Related: Compassionately. Phrase compassionate conservatism in American political language recorded by 1992, popularized, if not coined, by Marvin Olasky, University of Texas at Austin instructor.
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper