Definition of "object" []

• Something perceptible by one or more of the senses, especially by vision or touch; a material thing. (noun)
• A focus of attention, feeling, thought, or action: an object of contempt. (noun)
• The purpose, aim, or goal of a specific action or effort: the object of the game. (noun)
• Grammar A noun, pronoun, or noun phrase that receives or is affected by the action of a verb within a sentence. (noun)
• Grammar A noun or substantive governed by a preposition. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "_Book_, naming the thing acted upon, they call the _direct_ object; and _me_, naming the person toward whom the act is directed, they call the +indirect+, or _dative_, +object+."
• "By the latter process they put _themselves_ on the outside of an object -- in fact, they surround it; by the former, they put the _object_ outside by allowing it to escape through their bodies."
• "She suspects the object of his visit; more than that, she knows it: _she is herself its object_."