Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
n. (context grammar English) The noun or noun phrase that a verb is directly acting upon.
WordNet
n. the object that receives the direct action of the verb [syn: object of the verb]
Usage examples of "direct object".
He had succeeded in allaying Brush's nervousness and diverting his mind from the direct object of the interrogation.
That is, of course, a simple way of making use of a wrong, and getting rid of the sting, but that is not the direct object (or it would not be effective).
Yes: but as happiness is an accidental state, resulting only from the development of man's faculties and his social system, it is not the immediate and direct object of nature.
Bounderby always represented this to be the sole, immediate, and direct object of any Hand who was not entirely satisfied.
You reeker, he stands pat for you before a direct object in the feminine.
The history of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.