Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Audience
1.
The act of hearing; attention to sounds.
Thou, therefore, give due
audience
, and attend. Milton.
2.
Admittance to a hearing; a formal interview, esp. with a sovereign or the head of a government, for conference or the transaction of business.
According to the fair play of the world,
Let me have
Let me have
audience
: I am sent to speak. Shakespeare
3.
An auditory; an assembly of hearers. Also applied by authors to their readers.
Fit
audience
find, though few. Milton.
He drew his
audience
upward to the sky. Dryden.
Court of audience
, or
Audience court
(Eng.)
, a court long since disused, belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury; also, one belonging to the Archbishop of York.
Mozley & W.
– In general
(or open
) audience
publicly.
– To give audience
, to listen; to admit to an interview.
Webster 1828 Edition
Audience
AUD'IENCE
, n.1.
The act of hearing, or attending to sounds.His bold discourse had audience.
2.
Admittance to a hearing; public reception to an interview; a ceremony observed in courts, or by official characters, when ambassadors or applicants to men in office are permitted to appear and state their business in person.3.
An auditory; an assembly of hearers.4.
In the Spanish dominions, a court; as the audience of Seville, which is a court of oyer and terminer; and the audience pretorial, in the Indies, which is a high court of judicature. The word in Spain also signifies certain law-officers, appointed to institute a judicial inquiry.5.
In England, a court held by the arch-bishop of Canterbury, on the subject of consecrations, elections, institutions, marriages, &c.