Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To present or regard as an object.
  • transitive verb To make objective, external, or concrete.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make objective; present as an object; especially, to constitute as an object of sense; give form and shape to as an external object; externalize. Also objectivate, objectize.

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

  • transitive verb To cause to become an object; to cause to assume the character of an object; to represent or consider as an object; to render objective.

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

  • verb to make something (such as an abstract idea) possible to be perceived by the senses
  • verb to treat as something objectively real
  • verb to treat as a mere object and deny the dignity of

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

  • verb make external or objective, or give reality to
  • verb make impersonal or present as an object

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The reasoning in the article is poor, and the author's claim that the word objectify "is often used, but rarely defined" is absurd.

    Porn Does Anything BUT Objectify Women 2005

  • To 'objectify' is to perceive or regard a person as an object.

    Porn Does Anything BUT Objectify Women 2005

  • Therefore, pornography cannot "objectify" a sexual act as the author claims, because an act in itself does not have any humanity to lose.

    Porn Does Anything BUT Objectify Women 2005

  • She strikes me as a woman who would not "objectify" herself -- she doesn't need to do so, being at the top of her sport.

    Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local 2010

  • Sexual Relations With Hot Models - I never said the items on this list had to be "things," although I suppose a person who makes a living by selling products based entirely upon how they looking wearing and/or holding those things does kind of objectify them.

    Swan Fungus Evan 2010

  • She strikes me as a woman who would not "objectify" herself -- she doesn't need to do so, being at the top of her sport.

    Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local 2010

  • Sexual Relations With Hot Models - I never said the items on this list had to be "things," although I suppose a person who makes a living by selling products based entirely upon how they looking wearing and/or holding those things does kind of objectify them.

    Swan Fungus Evan 2010

  • Another argument for the view that Republicans make better poker players is that poker rewards what feminists have long considered one of the worst attributes of men: the capacity to "objectify" the other.

    The New Republic - All Feed Jonathan Chait 2010

  • A favorite example of mine is the old feminist declaration that men "objectify" women when they respond to female beauty as nature decrees.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2010

  • To a certain extent, it's more accepted that they "objectify" themselves, because they're guys, and guys are like, supposed to do that or something. said ...

    INVISIBLE ORANGES - THE METAL MP3 BLOG 2009

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