▪ I. auditory, a.
(ˈɔːdɪtərɪ)
[ad. L. audītōrius pertaining to hearing or hearers, f. audītor: see auditor and -ory.]
1. a. Pertaining to the sense or organs of hearing; received by the ear.
| 1578 Banister Hist. Man i. 10 That part of the temple bones, where the auditorie hole is sited. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 253 Three small bones in the Auditory Organ..Incus, Malleus, and Stapes. 1724 Swift To Delany Wks. 1755 IV. i. 46 From each ear, as he observes, There creep two auditory nerves. 1813 W. Taylor in Month. Mag. XXXV. 139 A habit of attending to auditory ideas. |
b. in Comb.
| 1936 J. Kantor Objective Psychol. Gram. iii. 32 Comparative grammar deals with auditory-vocal mass phenomena abstracted from the linguistic adjustments of the persons using such languages. 1964 M. A. K. Halliday et al. Linguistic Sciences iii. 59 The term ‘consonant’..is..an auditory-articulatory label. |
2. Belonging to the auditorium of a theatre, etc.
| 1740 Cibber Apol. (1756) I. 231 If the auditory part were a little more reduced to the model of that in Drury Lane. |
▪ II. ˈauditory, n.
[ad. L. audītōrium (see above). Sense 1, the earliest in Eng., was the latest in L.]
1. An assembly of hearers, an audience.
| c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. (1871) III. 426 Nouþer wolde I graunte hit..byfore auditorie þat I trowed schulde be harmed þerby. 1548 Latimer Serm. Plough i. 68 Here is a learned auditory: yet for them that be unlearned I will expound it. 1715 Burnet Own Time (1766) I. 188 He chose to preach to small auditories. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 525 A loud moan of sorrow rose from the whole auditory. |
2. A place for hearing; the part of a building occupied by the audience; an auditorium.
| 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. xiii. 2 (R.) The sande of the bancke and the bryncke of the bancke, made as though it were a rounde auditory. 1730 A. Gordon Maffei's Amphit. 22 That Place we call Auditory, from our hearing therein. 1884 Pall Mall G. 19 Jan. 4/2 The stage is divided from the auditory by a solid brick wall. |
† 3. A lecture-room; a philosophical school. Obs.
| 1606 G. W[oodcocke] Hist. Justine G g v b, His felow-scholers..taxed him, in the auditory, for not observing his word. 1643 Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. i. §36 Another scruple..much disputed in the Germane auditories. 1774 T. Warton Eng. Poetry II. 130 (T.) A provision, that he should..not suffer Ovid's Art of Love..to be studied in his auditory. |
† 4. The office of an auditor of accounts. Obs.
| 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. vi. xlvi. 160 The Count also of priuate reuenewes had his Rationall or Auditory of priuate State in Britain: to say nothing..of other officers of inferiour degrees. |