found object
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of found object
1955–60; translation of French objet trouvé
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Readymade—the found object transformed into art—has its roots in the Picasso’s and Braque’s Cubist collages, which incorporated scraps of newspaper, textiles, sheet music and wall paper.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 30, 2026
“It was a found object that we readjusted to our purposes, kind of like the character,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 17, 2024
The title of Andrew Christenberry’s Terzo Piano exhibition comes from a found object that’s mysterious yet intimately familiar to the artist.
From Washington Post • Mar. 25, 2022
The idea that you could prepare dinner like a luminary gastronome using a found object took hold and would not let go.
From Salon • Jul. 24, 2019
It is not the only found object she has used in collages.
From New York Times • Jul. 22, 2018
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
