attendance

[uh-ten-duh ns] /əˈtɛn dəns/
noun
1.
the act of attending.
2.
the persons or number of persons present:
an attendance of more than 300 veterans.
Idioms
3.
dance attendance, to be obsequious in one's attentions or service; attend constantly:
He was given a larger office and several assistants to dance attendance on him.
Origin
1325-75; Middle English < Anglo-French, Middle French. See attend, -ance
Related forms
proattendance, adjective
unattendance, noun
Examples from the web for attendance
  • Growing attendance is worsening the problem of contact between people and baboons in the park.
  • Thousands of people come to it and the attendance was noticeably down this year.
  • What made this so inappropriate was not the language so much as its bearing on certain people in attendance.
  • One trainee told me that three fourths of the people in attendance were either running for office or planning to run for office.
  • attendance at a live sporting event, as with many things in the electronic age, is tinged with a surreal quality.
  • For example, we've often talked on these fora about attendance policies.
  • Church attendance has not been increasing, as a new awakening would suggest.
  • But selective auditory attendance in humans is mostly a trick of the mind.
  • The physicists in attendance found it one of the highlights of the conference.
  • The crowds stayed away, but all six of us movie mavens in attendance were enthusiastically glued to the screen.
British Dictionary definitions for attendance

attendance

/əˈtɛndəns/
noun
1.
the act or state of attending
2.
the number of persons present: an attendance of 5000 at the festival
3.
(obsolete) attendants collectively; retinue
Word Origin and History for attendance
n.

late 14c., "act of attending to one's duties," from Old French atendance "attention, wait, hope, expectation," from atendant, present participle of atendre (see attend). Meaning "action of waiting on someone" dates from late 14c. (to dance attendance on someone is from 1560s); that of "action of being present, presenting oneself" (originally with intent of taking a part) is from mid-15c. Meaning "number of persons present" is from 1835.

Idioms and Phrases with attendance

attendance

see: dance attendance on