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.