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"Objective means that which belongs to, or proceeds from, the object known, and not from the subject knowing, and thus denotes what is real, in opposition to that which is ideal -- what exists in nature, in contrast to what exists merely in the thought of the individual" --Sir. W. Hamilton. [from Dictionary.com]

Saying "object" is like saying "thing", only with more ambiguity. Whereas "thing" is only a noun, "object" can take the form of any number of nouns, and occasionally ventures into the land of verbage.
At it's most basic definition, an object is a thing. That's what they teach you in nursery. From there it extends out. From the Visual Thesaurus, we have...

• noun: A physical (tagible and visible) entity
• noun: The goal intended to be attained
• noun: A grammatical constituent that is acted upon
• verb: express or raise an objection or protest

and if you're a coder, then objects take another semantic altogether.
Furthermore, the various meanings lend further confusion to some of the grammatic extensions; words such as objective and objectify being subtly mutable as context wishes.

(See also: Objectivity )