auditress en · NOUN
Etymology
From auditor + -ess.
Meanings
-
(dated) A female hearer.
Yet went she not, as not with such discourse / Delighted or not capable her ear / Of what was night: such pleasure she reserved, / Adam relating, she sole auditress
1667, John Milton, “Book CC”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 48-51:I have forbidden Adèle to talk to me about her presents, and she is bursting with repletion; have the goodness to serve her as auditress and interlocutrice:
1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XIV, in Jane Eyre. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 253:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| auditresses | Number=Plur | lexicographic |