object lesson
noun
ob·ject lesson
| \ ˈäb-jikt-
, -(ˌ)jekt-\
, -(ˌ)jekt-\
Definition of object lesson
: something that serves as a practical example of a principle or abstract idea
Examples of object lesson in a Sentence
His life story is an object lesson in how not to run a business.
Recent Examples on the Web
Venice offers an object lesson in making memorable places: Its buildings, even the Doge’s Palace, aren’t stand-alone objects. — Blair Kamin, chicagotribune.com, "Column: Back from Venice, with a fresh take on Chicago’s Venetian Gothic dazzler at 12 S. Michigan," 12 July 2019 The story used Applegate as an object lesson, showing how easily legitimate businessmen could get involved, purposely or accidentally, with Mafia figures. — AZCentral.com, "Don Bolles files: Were the popular Hobo Joe's coffee shops connected to the Mafia?," 30 July 2019 The First Red Scare passed into public memory as an object lesson on the consequences of handing over the machinery of government to demagogues. — Matt Ford, The New Republic, "Trump’s Day of Terror," 12 July 2019 Here, too, gay men can be deployed as an object lesson. — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, "Cruising in the Age of Consent," 19 June 2019 The white tubular steel outlines, award-winning examples of playful placemaking that allow visitors to reconstruct the buildings in their imaginations, have become icons and object lessons for architecture students. — Patrick Sisson, Curbed, "Masterpieces of Robert Venturi, a postmodern architecture icon," 20 Sep. 2018 And Vogtle has turned from a showcase of a new generation of nuclear power into an object lesson in the financial risk of a private company trying to build a nuclear-power plant. — Russell Gold, WSJ, "Southern Co. Earnings Hurt by Cost Overruns at Nuclear-Power Plant," 8 Aug. 2018 That should really be an object lesson for everyone considering this concept going forward. — Ed Wallace, star-telegram, "Little Shared Vehicles," 29 June 2018 But it can be seen as an object lesson in what effective Democratic politics can look like, as a contrast to the moribund state of the party’s status quo in Washington. — Frank Rich, Daily Intelligencer, "Rot on the Right, Green Shoots on the Left," 28 June 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'object lesson.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for object lesson
object lesson
noun
English Language Learners Definition of object lesson
: an example from real life that teaches a lesson or explains something
See the full definition for object lesson in the English Language Learners Dictionary