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LISTENER
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Someone who listens attentively
Synonyms:
attender; auditor; hearer; listener
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("listener" is a kind of...):
beholder; observer; perceiver; percipient (a person who becomes aware (of things or events) through the senses)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "listener"):
eavesdropper (a secret listener to private conversations)
Holonyms ("listener" is a member of...):
audience (a gathering of spectators or listeners at a (usually public) performance)
Derivation:
listen (hear with intention)
listen (listen and pay attention)
Context examples:
and one listener was so thrilled by the tender invitation that she longed to say she did know the land, and would joyfully depart thither whenever he liked.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Thus, the rhythms of the brainwaves corresponding to the speaker and the listener adjust according to the physical properties of the sound of the verbal messages expressed in a conversation.
(Our Brains Synchronize during A Conversation, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
She managed the recital, as she hoped, with address; prepared her anxious listener with caution; related simply and honestly the chief points on which Willoughby grounded his apology; did justice to his repentance, and softened only his protestations of present regard.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
She had got rid of two of the secrets which had weighed on her for a fortnight, and was certain of a willing listener in Jane, whenever she might wish to talk again of either.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Alleyne might talk to her of the stories of old gods and heroes, of gallant deeds and lofty aims, or he might hold forth upon moon and stars, and let his fancy wander over the hidden secrets of the universe, and he would have a rapt listener with flushed cheeks and eloquent eyes, who could repeat after him the very words which had fallen from his lips.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
You are a kind, kind listener.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
For the first time he became himself, consciously and deliberately at first, but soon lost in the joy of creating in making life as he knew it appear before his listeners' eyes.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
If any listener had heard me, he would have thought me mad: I pronounced them with such frantic energy.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
As I spoke, a dark gloom spread over my listener’s countenance.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
In publishing these short sketches based upon the numerous cases in which my companion’s singular gifts have made us the listeners to, and eventually the actors in, some strange drama, it is only natural that I should dwell rather upon his successes than upon his failures.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
