diff --git a/object.h b/object.h
index 8bca310713..eb7e481c39 100644
--- a/object.h
+++ b/object.h
@@ -144,7 +144,18 @@ struct object *parse_object_or_die(const struct object_id *oid, const char *name
  */
 struct object *parse_object_buffer(struct repository *r, const struct object_id *oid, enum object_type type, unsigned long size, void *buffer, int *eaten_p);
 
-/** Returns the object, with potentially excess memory allocated. **/
+/*
+ * Allocate and return an object struct, even if you do not know the type of
+ * the object. The returned object may have its "type" field set to a real type
+ * (if somebody previously called lookup_blob(), etc), or it may be set to
+ * OBJ_NONE. In the latter case, subsequent calls to lookup_blob(), etc, will
+ * set the type field as appropriate.
+ *
+ * Use this when you do not know the expected type of an object and want to
+ * avoid parsing it for efficiency reasons. Try to avoid it otherwise; it
+ * may allocate excess memory, since the returned object must be as large as
+ * the maximum struct of any type.
+ */
 struct object *lookup_unknown_object(struct repository *r, const struct object_id *oid);
 
 struct object_list *object_list_insert(struct object *item,