To her, they were all becoming mere objects, without any value or purpose other than as fuel.
I did not wish to be a mere sexual object!
He seems to be in love with Koharu, yet sees her as a mere object to obtain.
With time, they lose the love and become mere objects.
"Do you think you are more than a mere object," he asked, "to be done with as I please?"
When people did not speak, they were mere objects, useful perhaps, but of no value beyond their use.
Other people were mere objects of indifference to him.
"How should a mere object of the King's occasional pleasure venture to have an opinion on such matters?"
Royalty had been reduced in a moment to a mere object.
But he got something far more treacherous than mere objects.