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
The goal is to not turn others into a captive audience to your calendars, emails, texts, and alarms.
—
Victoria Song, The Verge, 27 Mar. 2024
There are few other arenas – especially in climate – where powerful world leaders are a captive audience.
—Solitaire Townsend, Forbes, 28 Nov. 2023
Economic stability has been one of his key sales pitches, albeit to a largely captive audience.
—Melvin Backman, Quartz, 14 Mar. 2024
As viewers watch the Kansas City Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers, and Usher perform during halftime, and Taylor Swift react to Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce, brands taking advantage of this huge captive audience are estimated to have paid some hefty prices.
—Morgan Haefner, Quartz, 7 Feb. 2024
Lastly, create compelling content to keep a captive audience entertained and engaged.
—Expert Panel®, Forbes, 30 Nov. 2023
This time, however, the gunmen merely delivered a two-hour sermon to their captive audience and then left.
—Joshua Meservey, Foreign Affairs, 26 July 2015
With a captive audience, the Lions proved the offseason hype was justified.
—Jared Ramsey, Detroit Free Press, 8 Sep. 2023
Like much of the office space above it, the ground floor will probably have to be reimagined in San Francisco’s business district and other downtowns that have long taken for granted a captive audience of commuting consumers.
—Emily Badger, New York Times, 5 Sep. 2023
Victoria Song, The Verge, 27 Mar. 2024
There are few other arenas – especially in climate – where powerful world leaders are a captive audience.
—Solitaire Townsend, Forbes, 28 Nov. 2023
Economic stability has been one of his key sales pitches, albeit to a largely captive audience.
—Melvin Backman, Quartz, 14 Mar. 2024
As viewers watch the Kansas City Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers, and Usher perform during halftime, and Taylor Swift react to Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce, brands taking advantage of this huge captive audience are estimated to have paid some hefty prices.
—Morgan Haefner, Quartz, 7 Feb. 2024
Lastly, create compelling content to keep a captive audience entertained and engaged.
—Expert Panel®, Forbes, 30 Nov. 2023
This time, however, the gunmen merely delivered a two-hour sermon to their captive audience and then left.
—Joshua Meservey, Foreign Affairs, 26 July 2015
With a captive audience, the Lions proved the offseason hype was justified.
—Jared Ramsey, Detroit Free Press, 8 Sep. 2023
Like much of the office space above it, the ground floor will probably have to be reimagined in San Francisco’s business district and other downtowns that have long taken for granted a captive audience of commuting consumers.
—Emily Badger, New York Times, 5 Sep. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'captive audience.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near captive audience
Cite this Entry
“Captive audience.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/captive%20audience. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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