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 plural.
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. Shaks., 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. 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. 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 have audience · in halle ne in chambres.
1599. Shaks., 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.
attributively.
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 plural.
† 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 Worc. 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. 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., Dodsl., 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 Ellen H. Rollins (‘E. H. Arr’), New Eng. Bygones, Pref. 1. This book is published with no thought of an audience.
† 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.
