[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.
a. 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 Gaz., 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.
