Definition of "listener"

[…] she would set herself going, telling the most interminable stories, until the last listener was fast asleep […]

1904, William Henry Hudson, “chapter 2”, in Green Mansions

And then her words tumbled out in a passion of communication, as though she hurried before her listener could be taken away.

1937, John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men

Gas now planted his favourite hit under the left listener of his antagonist, which sent him to dorse.

Fancy Gazette, quoted in 1823, John Badcock, Slang, a Dictionary of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, the Pit, of Bon-Ton, and the Varieties of Life