captive audience
noun
: a person or people who are unable to leave a place and are thus forced to listen to what is being said
The passengers on the plane were a captive audience.
Examples of captive audience in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
On Thursday night, the Balmain Army had a small yet captive audience perched above Monsieur, Baz Luhrmann’s new bar in the East Village.
—
Kristen Tauer, Footwear News, 28 Mar. 2025
That effectively delivers Google a captive audience on Apple devices.
—Ars Technica, 25 Mar. 2025
There will be another captive audience on Saturday night.
—Tim Casey, Forbes, 15 Mar. 2025
With Isaac chained up during an act of light kink, Iris takes advantage of her captive audience to convince him to be her boyfriend.
—Glenn Garner, Deadline, 6 Feb. 2025
But the three to four deeply unserious men who appear each season to drone on about crypto, Joe Rogan, and Brazilian jujitsu will get herded away by the captive audience of their dreams and stop wasting a living, breathing woman’s time.
—Nic Juarez, Vulture, 19 Feb. 2025
With the biggest captive audience of his career -- around 80,000 fans in the Superdome and millions more at home — Lamar's performance will conjure a medley of hits that could span his 15-year discography, and will feature R&B star SZA as a special guest.
—Sidney Madden, NPR, 9 Feb. 2025
Last November, the agency ruled that captive audience meetings, or mandatory employee meetings typically called by employers during union campaigns, are unlawful.
—Annie Palmer, CNBC, 6 Feb. 2025
There’s no captive audience to try to persuade because audiences are no longer captive.
—Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 6 Feb. 2025
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Kristen Tauer, Footwear News, 28 Mar. 2025
That effectively delivers Google a captive audience on Apple devices.
—Ars Technica, 25 Mar. 2025
There will be another captive audience on Saturday night.
—Tim Casey, Forbes, 15 Mar. 2025
With Isaac chained up during an act of light kink, Iris takes advantage of her captive audience to convince him to be her boyfriend.
—Glenn Garner, Deadline, 6 Feb. 2025
But the three to four deeply unserious men who appear each season to drone on about crypto, Joe Rogan, and Brazilian jujitsu will get herded away by the captive audience of their dreams and stop wasting a living, breathing woman’s time.
—Nic Juarez, Vulture, 19 Feb. 2025
With the biggest captive audience of his career -- around 80,000 fans in the Superdome and millions more at home — Lamar's performance will conjure a medley of hits that could span his 15-year discography, and will feature R&B star SZA as a special guest.
—Sidney Madden, NPR, 9 Feb. 2025
Last November, the agency ruled that captive audience meetings, or mandatory employee meetings typically called by employers during union campaigns, are unlawful.
—Annie Palmer, CNBC, 6 Feb. 2025
There’s no captive audience to try to persuade because audiences are no longer captive.
—Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 6 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Captive audience.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/captive%20audience. Accessed 3 May. 2025.
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