Noun

(en noun)

One who protects or supports; a defender.

* Shakespeare

patron of my life and liberty

* Spenser

the patron of true holiness

A regular customer, as of a certain store or restaurant.

This car park is for patrons only.

A property owner who hires a contractor for construction works.

An influential, wealthy person who supported an artist, craftsman, a scholar or a noble.

(historical, Roman antiquity) A master who had freed his slave but still retained some paternal rights over him.

An advocate or pleader.

* Macaulay

Let him who works the client wrong / Beware the patron' s ire.

(UK, ecclestiastical) One who has gift and disposition of a benefice.

(nautical) A padrone.

Noun

(en noun)

* 1526 , William Tyndale, trans. Bible , Luke VII:

When he had ended all his sayinges in the audience of the people, he entred into Capernaum.

A group of people within hearing; specifically a group of people listening to a performance, speech etc.; the crowd seeing a stage performance.

* , chapter=3

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.}}

We joined the audience just as the lights went down.

A formal meeting with a state or religious dignitary.

The readership of a book or other written publication.

A following.