objectify

present singular third person objectifies · participle present objectifying · participle past objectified · past objectified

1. ambitransitiveTo make (something, such as an abstract idea) possible to be perceived by the senses.

   It was the unknown, objectified at last, in concrete flesh and blood, bending over him and reaching down to seize hold of him.

   1906 May–October, Jack London, White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC

   Synonyms: objectivize, reify, thingify

2. transitiveTo treat (something) as objectively real.

   The mystic objectifies a rich feeling in the pit of the stomach into a cosmology.

   1921, Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow, London: Chatto & Windus

   Synonyms: objectivize, reify, thingify

3. transitiveTo treat (someone) as a mere (usually sexual) object; to sexually dehumanize (someone).

   Near-synonyms: demean, fetishize

   2 more examples

   1994 "Book review: Fire With Fire", backlash.comhttp://www.backlash.com/content/gender/1996/3-mar96/page23.html She talks about the fact that women objectify men just as much as men objectify women, and she even admits her culpability in doing so by talking about how sometimes she wishes she had a group of "nubile 17 year old soccer players" to keep her happy.

   The entire notion of cheerleading is just a sexist attempt to try to objectify the female body.

   1999: Dawson's Creek (TV, episode 3.04)

   Synonyms: demean, fetishize