[ad. L. subaudītio, -ōnem, n. of action f. subaudīre (see prec.). Cf. F. subaudition.]
† 1. Hearing a little. Obs. rare–0.
1658. Phillips.
2. Chiefly Gram. The act of mentally supplying something that is not expressed; something that is mentally supplied or understood; implied or understood meaning.
1798. Tooke, Purley, II. (1805), 17. If it must have a name, it should rather be called subaudition than abstraction. Ibid., 121. Bond Band Bound—however spelled, and with whatever subaudition applied, is still one and the same word.
1839. New Monthly Mag., LVI. 455. There is a subaudition of so many ifs.
1859. Trench, Study of Words (ed. 9), iii. 87. ‘Policeman’ has no evil subaudition.
1859. Thackeray, Virgin., lix. Taking the business-part for granted, and leaving it as it were for subaudition.
1905. Sat. Rev., 1 March, 311. A glorified subaudition of social compact lay also behind the Tudor despotism.
