anything that is visible or tangible and is relatively stable in form.
2.
a thing, person, or matter to which thought or action is directed: an object of medical investigation.
3.
the end toward which effort or action is directed; goal; purpose: Profit is the object of business.
4.
a person or thing with reference to the impression made on the mind or the feeling or emotion elicited in an observer: an object of curiosity and pity.
5.
anything that may be apprehended intellectually: objects of thought.
6.
Optics. the thing of which a lens or mirror forms an image.
7.
Grammar. (in many languages, as English) a noun, noun phrase, or noun substitute representing by its syntactical position either the goal of the action of a verb or the goal of a preposition in a prepositional phrase, as ball in John hit the ball, Venice in He came to Venice, coin and her in He gave her a coin.Compare direct object, indirect object.
8.
Computers. any item that can be individually selected or manipulated, as a picture, data file, or piece of text.
9.
Metaphysics. something toward which a cognitive act is directed.
–verb (used without object)
10.
to offer a reason or argument in opposition.
11.
to express or feel disapproval, dislike, or distaste; be averse.
12.
to refuse or attempt to refuse to permit some action, speech, etc.
–verb (used with object)
13.
to state, claim, or cite in opposition; put forward in objection: Some persons objected that the proposed import duty would harm world trade.
14.
Archaic. to bring forward or adduce in opposition.
[Origin: 1325–75; (n.) ME: something perceived, purpose, objection < ML objectum something thrown down or presented (to the mind), n. use of neut. of L objectus (ptp. of objicere), equiv. to ob-ob-+ jec- (comb. form of jacere to throw; see jet1) + -tus ptp. suffix; (v.) ME objecten to argue against (< MF obje(c)ter) < L objectāre to throw or put before, oppose]
—Related forms
ob·jec·tor, noun
—Synonyms 3. objective, target, destination, intent, intention, motive. See aim.
object-oriented programming, a modular approach to computer program (software) design. Each module, or object, combines data and procedures (sequences of instructions) that act on the data; in traditional, or procedural, programming the data are separated from the instructions. A group of objects that have properties, operations, and behaviors in common is called a class. By reusing classes developed for previous applications, new applications can be developed faster with improved reliability and consistency of design. The first object-oriented programs, written in the language Simula 67, were used extensively for modeling and simulation, primarily in Europe during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The technique was popularized in the United States during the following decade using the language SmallTalk and achieved its greatest prominence with the development of the object-oriented language C++ during the late 1980s and 1990s.
See P. W. Oman and T. G. Lewis, Milestones in Software Evolution (1990); T. Budd, An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming (1991); P. Varhol, Object-Oriented Programming: The Software Development Revolution (1993); P. Coad and J. Nicola, OOP, Object-Oriented Programming (1993).