erect Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb construct, build, or erect
    set up; put up; rear; raise.
    • Raise a barn
  2. verb cause to rise up
    rear.
  3. adjective upright in position or posture
    upright; vertical.
    • an erect stature
    • erect flower stalks
    • for a dog, an erect tail indicates aggression
    • a column still vertical amid the ruins
    • he sat bolt upright
  4. adjective satellite of sexual organs; stiff and rigid
    tumid.

WordNet

E*rect" adjective
Etymology
L. erectus, p. p. of erigere to erect; e out + regere to lead straight. See Right, and cf. Alert.
Definitions
  1. Upright, or having a vertical position; not inverted; not leaning or bent; not prone; as, to stand erect.
    Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall. Milton.
    Among the Greek colonies and churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect -- a column of ruins. Gibbon.
  2. Directed upward; raised; uplifted.
    His piercing eyes, erect, appear to view Superior worlds, and look all nature through. Pope.
  3. Bold; confident; free from depression; undismayed.
    But who is he, by years Bowed, but erect in heart? Keble.
  4. Watchful; alert.
    Vigilant and erect attention of mind. Hooker.
  5. (Bot.) Standing upright, with reference to the earth's surface, or to the surface to which it is attached.
  6. (Her.) Elevated, as the tips of wings, heads of serpents, etc.
E*rect" transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Erected; present participle & verbal noun Erecting
Definitions
  1. To raise and place in an upright or perpendicular position; to set upright; to raise; as, to erect a pole, a flagstaff, a monument, etc.
  2. To raise, as a building; to build; to construct; as, to erect a house or a fort; to set up; to put together the component parts of, as of a machine.
  3. To lift up; to elevate; to exalt; to magnify.
    That didst his state above his hopes erect. Daniel.
    I, who am a party, am not to erect myself into a judge. Dryden.
  4. To animate; to encourage; to cheer.
    It raiseth the dropping spirit, erecting it to a loving complaisance. Barrow.
  5. To set up as an assertion or consequence from premises, or the like. "To erect conclusions." Sir T. Browne. "Malebranche erects this proposition." Locke.
  6. To set up or establish; to found; to form; to institute. "To erect a new commonwealth." Hooker. Syn. -- To set up; raise; elevate; construct; build; institute; establish; found.
E*rect" intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To rise upright. Obs.
    By wet, stalks do erect. Bacon.

Webster 1913