bleacher

noun

Etymology: From Middle English blechere, equivalent to bleach + -er. Compare Dutch bleker, Swedish blekare. The seating was so named because the boards were bleached by the sun.

1. One who, or that which, bleaches.
2. A stand of tiered planks used as seating for spectators, often outdoors.

   “There could be a rough crowd out in the bleachers.”

   “It seemed silly for the crowd to applaud or groan over what you had already felt in your fingers or even in your arms as you braced to shoot or for that matter in your eyes: when he was hot he could see the separate threads wound into the strings looping the hoop. Yet at the start of the game when you came out for warm-up and could see all the town clunkers sitting in the back of the bleachers elbowing each other and the cheerleaders wisecracking with the racier male teachers, the crowd then seemed right inside you, your liver and lungs and stomach.”

3. The tiered seating provided for the audience at a television filming.

   “In practice, audience members often have badly obstructed views of the sets—whether due to obstructive camera dollies and production personnel or viewers sitting in the bleachers off to the side of the set that is currently being used.”