audience
(ˈɔːdɪəns)
Forms: 4–6 audiens, 5 audenes, -yence, awdiens, -yens, -yence, 5–6 audyens, 4– audience.
[a. F. audience (13th c.), refash. form after L. of OF. oiance:—L. audientia, n. of quality f. audient-em, pr. pple. of audīre to hear: see -ence.]
I. Audience (abstractly). No pl.
1. The action of hearing; attention to what is spoken. to give audience: to give ear, listen.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus v. 235 Now I am gon, whom yeve ye audiens? c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) ii. 156 We beseche yow of audyens. 1549 Compl. Scot. xvi. 138, I refuse to gyf eyris or audiens to thy accusations. 1607 Shakes. Cor. iii. iii. 40 List to your Tribunes. Audience: Peace I say. 1657 Reeve God's Plea Ep. Ded. 14 To put audience into his ears, compassion into his eyes. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 406 These teachers easily found attentive audience. |
2. a. The state or condition of hearing, or of being able to hear; hearing. in (open, general) audience (obs.): so that all may hear, publicly.
| c 1386 Chaucer Melib. ¶83 Many folk..conseilled him the contrary in general audience. 1470–85 Malory Arthur (1816) I. 86 He said, in open audience: ‘This is your place.’ 1640 Abel Rediv., Musculus (1867) I. 300 And uttereth these words in the audience of the congregation. 1814 Cary Dante 290 Thou in his audience shouldst thereof discourse. |
† b. with objective genitive. Obs. rare.
| 1626 T. Ailesbury Passion-Serm. 1 Saint Paul..gained the audience of unspeakable mysteries. |
3. Judicial hearing. Court of Audience or Audience Court: an ecclesiastical court, at first held by the archbishop, afterwards by learned men, called Auditors, on his behalf. The Audience Court of Canterbury is now merged in the Court of Arches. arch. or Obs.
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. x. 28 He cald til þe audiens Of Edward. c 1500 Lancelot 1649 That thi puple have awdiens With thar complantis. 1541 Act 33 Hen. VIII, xxxi, Constrained for appeles to resort to the audience of Canturbury. 1726 Ayliffe Parerg. 192 The Court of Audience held in Pauls Church in London. 1809 Tomlins Law Dict. s.v., The archbishop of York hath, in like manner, his court of audience. |
4. Formal hearing, reception at a formal interview: see 6.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xiii. 434 Shulde none harlote haue audience · in halle ne in chambres. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, i. i. 91 The French Embassador vpon that instant Crau'd audience. 1743 Tindal Rapin's Hist. xvii. II. 140 Being admitted to audience. Mod. The ambassador had audience of her majesty. |
attrib.
| 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. vii. xc. 412 The throne in the audience-chamber is of velvet. 1878 H. Stanley Dark Cont. I. xv. 398 The court before the audience-hall. |
II. An audience. With pl.
† 5. gen. An occasion of hearing. Obs.
| 1426 Paston Lett. 7 I. 26 In any sermon or other audience, in your cherche or elles where. |
6. A formal interview granted by a superior to an inferior (especially by a sovereign or chief governor) for conference or the transaction of business. Const. of, with. audience of leave: interview for the purpose of taking leave, farewell interview.
| 1514 Earl of Worcester in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 69 I. 233 The king..gave me a good and longe audiens. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. III. xii. 253 The embassadours declined any formal audiences. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 298 ¶5, I dropped him a Curtsy, and gave him to understand that this was his Audience of Leave. 1770 Junius Lett. xli. 216 He had a right to demand an audience of his sovereign. 1844 Disraeli Coningsby iv. xv. 184, I had an audience..with the Spanish Minister. |
7. a. The persons within hearing; an assembly of listeners, an auditory.
| 1407 W. Thorpe Examin. (R.T.S.) 51 There was no audience of secular men by. 1519 Four Elem. in Hazl. Dodsley I. 46 Such company..Will please well this audience. 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 31 Fit audience find, though few. 1714 Byrom Spect. No. 597 ¶9 The rest of the Audience were enjoying..an excellent Discourse. 1817 Moore Lalla R. (1824) 128 He here looked round, and discovered that most of his audience were asleep. Mod. He lectured to large audiences in New York. |
b. transf. The readers of a book.
| 1855 H. Reed Lect. Eng. Lit. vii. (1878) 225 ‘Pilgrim's Progress’..has gained an audience as large as Christendom. 1883 G. Hamilton in E. C. Rollins New Eng. Bygones Pref. 1 This book is published with no thought of an audience. |
c. transf. Listeners to radio programmes or viewers of television.
| 1928 B.B.C. Handbk. 1929 259 The audience for broadcast entertainment has already far outstripped in size any other audience in the world. 1936 B.B.C. Ann. 85/2 The audience for the daily broadcasts to schools constitutes another special section of the public. 1952 Ann. Reg. 1951 400 Television's For the Children..won an avid audience. |
d. attrib. and Comb., as audience participation, sharing by an audience in a broadcast programme, etc.; audience-rating, assessment of the audience of a radio or television programme; audience research (cf. listener research), see quot. 1951; hence audience-researcher.
| 1812 Dramatic Censor for 1811 99 The hall, or audience part of the House, to comprise the segment of a circle. 1940 E. McGill Radio Directing x. 201 On audience-participation broadcasts the script is no more than a guide-post. Ibid. 203 An audience-participation program should never be built around a person who is not a ready improviser. 1940 Q. Jrnl. Speech Feb. 134 Experimental productions may teach the playwright..the importance of audience-reactions in the revision of a script. 1948 Penguin Music Mag. Feb. 52 Intelligent audience-participation is more and more possible. 1950 L. A. G. Strong Which I Never ii. 48, I was thinking less of intrinsic quality, of skill, than of what I believe is termed audience appeal. Box-office. 1950 Times 6 Sept. 2/5 An analysis by the B.B.C. Audience Research Department of the social grades of listeners. 1951 B.B.C. Year Book 144 The BBC maintains an Audience Research Department to advise it on the habits, tastes, and opinions both of listeners and of viewers. 1955 Koestler Trail of Dinosaur 91 The radio performances of a Bach cantata and of a sobbing crooner are compared on the same scale of audience-rating. 1959 Observer 8 Feb. 18/3 I.T.V...is now estimated by the audience-researchers to have an average daily audience or viewing public of 5,250,000. |
† 8. A place of hearing, an audience-chamber. Obs.
| 1596 Danett Commines' Hist. Fr. (1614) 344 He had built a publike audience, where himselfe heard the sutes of all men. |
9. A court, either of government or justice, in Spanish America; also, the territory administered by it. (Sp. audiencia.)
| [1622 R. Hawkins Voy. S. Sea (1847) 158 It hath his governour, and audiencia, with two bishoppes.] 1727–51 Chambers Cycl. s.v., New Spain comprehends three audiences, those of Gaudalajara, Mexico, and Guatimala. 1777 Robertson Amer. II. 393 Supreme direction of civil affairs was placed in a board, called The Audience of New Spain. |