"People's satisfaction," he said, "is an unattainable object."

It involves migraines and hiccups and a luxury residence for dogs, and Perkus's quest for unattainable vaselike objects, called chaldrons, that hold an almost mystical appeal.

In the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, objet petit a (object little-a) stands for the unattainable object of desire.

If, for example, a night-moth were to concentrate its will on flying to a star or on some equally unattainable object, it wouldn't succeed.

But for most showgoers, such wall-filling screens remain an unattainable object of technolust.

But there will probably be other cases where action is required and Security Council support is unattainable because Russia or China object.

Often cast as an icy, distant Victorian or an unattainable object of desire, Ward's choice of roles in the 1980s and early 1990s did not offer much variation.

But she also fantasizes about being the unattainable object of his desire, acting out imaginary conversations in which she sweetly plays hard to get.

The Holy Grail has become a popular metaphor for elusive perfection, for the most exalted or unattainable object of one's desire.

His eyes instead appeared to be fixed upon some unattainable object in the distance.