direct object

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

• noun A word or phrase in a sentence referring to the person or thing receiving the action of a transitive verb. For example, in English, in mail the letter and call him, letter and him are direct objects.

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

• noun grammar The noun or noun phrase that a verb is directly acting upon.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the object that receives the direct action of the verb