feel (someone's) pain

To have a deep, empathetic understanding of the pain that someone else feels. A: "I just don't know how I can go on without her." B: "I feel your pain, John. I lost my mother at a young age, too." These politicians claim to feel our pain every time the economy suffers, but I always have a hard time believing them. Aww, honey, I know—a break-up is an awful thing to go through. I feel your pain.

feel someone's pain, to

To empathize completely with someone. This hyperbolic idea is often asserted hypocritically, or by someone who is actually causing the pain. Thus, “I feel your pain” can be a politician’s response to a constituent who is complaining about the minimum wage, even though he actually voted against its being increased. This expression needs to be differentiated from feeling no pain, a slangy phrase from the mid-twentieth century describing someone who is intoxicated, and from I feel for you but I can’t quite reach you, a slangy response expressing lack of sympathy for someone’s hard-luck story.