▪ I. audition, n.
(ɔːˈdɪʃən)
[? a. F. audition, 14th c. audicion, ad. L. audītiōn-em, f. audīre to hear.]
1. a. The action of hearing or listening.
| 1660 Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 257/1 The act of the Object, and the act of Sense itself, as Sonation and Audition..differ only intentionally. 1881 Fitch Lect. Teaching viii. 252 What may be called audition—the listening to French sentences and rapidly interpreting them. |
b. A trial hearing or performance of an actor, singer, etc., seeking employment.
| 1881 Scribner's Monthly May 122/1 The director of the Académie de Musique..fixed a day for her audition at the theatre. 1908 Evening News 18 June 3/3 When she was nineteen she was given an ‘audition’ at the Santa Cecilia Conservatoire. 1926 Westm. Gaz. 30 Jan., The plaintiff gave auditions to several girl saxophonists to fill the vacancy. 1933 P. Godfrey Back-Stage xv. 190 The chorus-girl gets her jobs by attending auditions. |
2. The power or faculty of hearing.
| 1599 A. M. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physic 63/1 It draweth all out which is in the Eares, and administreth good auditione. 1867 Tyndall Sound ii. 74 The insect-music lying quite beyond his limit of audition. |
3. An object of hearing, something heard; cf vision.
| 1762 H. Walpole Corr. (1837) II. 133, I went to hear it for it is not an apparition but an audition. |
▪ II. audition, v.
(ɔːˈdɪʃən)
[f. the n.]
1. trans. To give an audition to (an applicant); to test by means of an audition.
| 1935 Punch 18 Sept. 325/3 ‘Players who wish to be auditioned..’ B.B.C. Advertisement. 1958 Sunday Times 26 Jan. 20/4 Here the sixty-eight-year-old playwright auditions Jacqueline Foster for a part. 1959 Times 14 Sept. 5/1 When I auditioned English dancers for the London production. |
2. intr. To undergo an audition; to be tested by means of an audition. orig. U.S.
| 1937 Variety 17 Mar. (heading) Ice-Skater auditions in Rockefeller Plaza to ag[en]cy 14 floors up. 1938 Amer. Speech XIII. 194 Candidates for radio work at first are given an audition; later they simply audition. 1955 Begley & MacCrae (title) Auditioning for TV: How to prepare for success as a television actor. |