Showing results for captive audience. Search instead for increased audience.

captive audience

Idioms

Listeners or onlookers who have no choice but to attend. For example, It's a required course and, knowing he has a captive audience, the professor rambles on endlessly. This expression, first recorded in 1902, uses captive in the sense of “unable to escape.”

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But if the proliferation of watch parties is any indication, those scandals have only increased audience interest.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 11, 2025

F1 has shown the teams data that proves the sprint events increased audience figures and sponsorship income.

From BBC • Jan. 18, 2022

Ever since, the paper has remained in overdrive as far as journalistic output and increased audience, providing an information lifeline for one of the country’s hardest-hit communities.

From Slate • Mar. 27, 2020

He then set in train changes to programming and schedules, making LWT more populist and winning an increased audience share as a result.

From The Guardian • Mar. 7, 2011

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023