Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun 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.
  • noun A limiting factor that must be considered.
  • noun The purpose, aim, or goal of a specific action or effort: synonym: intention.
  • noun A noun, pronoun, or noun phrase that receives or is affected by the action of a verb within a sentence.
  • noun A noun or substantive governed by a preposition and typically following it.
  • noun Philosophy Something intelligible or perceptible by the mind.
  • noun A discrete item than can be selected and maneuvered, such as an onscreen graphic.
  • noun In object-oriented programming, a structure that combines data and the procedures necessary to operate on that data.
  • intransitive verb To present a dissenting or opposing argument; raise an objection.
  • intransitive verb To be averse to or express disapproval of something.
  • intransitive verb To put forward in or as a reason for opposition; offer as criticism.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To throw or place in the way; oppose; interpose.
  • To throw or place before the view; set clearly in view; present; expose.
  • To bring forward as a ground of opposition, of doubt, of criticism, of reproach, etc.; state or urge against or in opposition to something; state as an objection: frequently with to or against.
  • To offer or make opposition in words or arguments; offer reasons against a proposed action or form of statement.
  • Plainly presented to the senses or the mind; in view; conspicuous.
  • noun Anything which is perceived, known, thought of, or signified; that toward which a cognitive act is directed; the non-ego considered as the correlate of a knowing ego.
  • noun That toward which an action is directed and which is affected by it; that concerning which an emotion or passion is excited.
  • noun An idea to the realization of which action is directed; purpose; aim; end.
  • noun A thing, especially a thing external to the mind, but spoken of absolutely and not as relative to a subject or to any action.
  • noun In grammar: A member of the sentence, a substantive word or phrase or clause, immediately (that is, without the intervention of a preposition) dependent on a verb, as expressing that on which the action expressed by the verb is exerted.
  • noun A similar member of the sentence dependent on a preposition, i. e. joined by a preposition to the word it limits or qualifies: as, he went with me; a man of spirit.
  • noun The aspect in which a thing is presented to notice; sight; appearance.
  • noun A deformed person, or one helpless from bodily infirmity; a gazing-stock.
  • noun An obstacle.
  • noun See the adjectives.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To make opposition in words or argument; to express one's displeasure; -- usually followed by to.
  • transitive verb obsolete To set before or against; to bring into opposition; to oppose.
  • transitive verb To offer in opposition as a criminal charge or by way of accusation or reproach; to adduce as an objection or adverse reason.
  • adjective obsolete Opposed; presented in opposition; also, exposed.
  • noun That which is put, or which may be regarded as put, in the way of some of the senses; something visible or tangible and persists for an appreciable time
  • noun Anything which is set, or which may be regarded as set, before the mind so as to be apprehended or known; that of which the mind by any of its activities takes cognizance, whether a thing external in space or a conception formed by the mind itself
  • noun That toward which the mind, or any of its activities, is directed; that on which the purpose are fixed as the end of action or effort; that which is sought for; goal; end; aim; motive; final cause.
  • noun obsolete Sight; show; appearance; aspect.
  • noun (Gram.) A word, phrase, or clause toward which an action is directed, or is considered to be directed.
  • noun (Computers) Any set of data that is or can be manipulated or referenced by a computer program as a single entity; -- the term may be used broadly, to include files, images (such as icons on the screen), or small data structures.
  • noun (Ontology) Anything which exists and which has attributes; distinguished from attributes, processes, and relations.
  • noun the lens, or system of lenses, placed at the end of a telescope, microscope, etc., which is toward the object. Its function is to form an image of the object, which is then viewed by the eyepiece. Called also objective or objective lens. See Illust. of Microscope.
  • noun a lesson in which object teaching is made use of.
  • noun (Leveling) Same as Leveling staff.
  • noun a method of instruction, in which illustrative objects are employed, each new word or idea being accompanied by a representation of that which it signifies; -- used especially in the kindergarten, for young children.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A thing that has physical existence.
  • noun The goal, end or purpose of something.
  • noun grammar The noun phrase which is an internal complement of a verb phrase or a prepositional phrase. In a verb phrase with a transitive action verb, it is typically the receiver of the action.
  • noun A person or thing toward which an emotion is directed.
  • noun computing In object-oriented programming, an instantiation of a class or structure.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Medieval Latin obiectum, thing put before the mind, from neuter past participle of Latin obicere, to put before, hinder : ob-, before, toward; see ob– + iacere, to throw; see yē- in Indo-European roots. V., from Middle English obiecten, from Old French objecter, from Latin obiectāre, frequentative of obicere.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin obiectum ("object") literally "thrown against", from obiectus, perfect passive participle of obiciō ("throw against"), from ob ("against") + iaciō ("throw").

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Examples

  • _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+.

    Higher Lessons in English A work on english grammar and composition Brainerd Kellogg

  • 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.

    The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals James Weir 1881

  • She suspects the object of his visit; more than that, she knows it: _she is herself its object_.

    The Wild Huntress Love in the Wilderness Mayne Reid 1850

  • But this only proves that while thousands and tens of thousands of their fellow beings spent their lives in insignificance, for want of a definite object to live for, these men, having an _object_ before them, _accomplished_ something.

    The Young Man's Guide William A. Alcott 1824

  • This is what $object method ... syntax supports quite well, as it allows the object to decide how to interpret the message depending on its type.

    Netvouz - new bookmarks cduret 2010

  • -- Create a SQL Server object EXEC @hr = sp_OACreate 'SQLDMO. SQLServer', @object OUT

    eggheadcafe.com articles 2010

  • -- Create a SQL Server object EXEC @hr = sp_OACreate 'SQLDMO. SQLServer', @object OUT

    eggheadcafe.com articles 2010

  • For best performance, all objects that are called within the same stored procedure should all be owned by the same object owner or schema, preferably dbo, and should also be referred to in the format of object_owner. object_name or schema_owner. object_ name.

    The Code Project Latest Articles Gaurav Dudeja India 2009

  • * Put object in queue function put ($object, $scope) $this - > data [$object] [ 'data'] [] = $scope;

    phpBB.com 2009

  • * Init a queue object function init ($object, $package_size) $this - > data [$object] = array ();

    phpBB.com 2009

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