erect

Etymology 1

From Middle English erect, a borrowing from Latin ērectus (“upright”), past participle of ērigō (“raise, set up”), from ē- (“out”) + regō (“to direct, keep straight, guide”).

adj

1. Upright; vertical or reaching broadly upwards.
2. (of body parts) Rigid, firm; standing out perpendicularly, especially as the result of stimulation.
   The penis should be fully erect before commencing copulation.
   erect nipples
3. (of a person) Having an erect penis.
   OK, baby, I'm erect now. Let's get it on!
4. (obsolete) Bold; confident; free from depression; undismayed.
5. (obsolete) Directed upward; raised; uplifted.
6. Watchful; alert.
7. (heraldry) Elevated, as the tips of wings, heads of serpents, etc.

Etymology 2

From Middle English erecten, from the adjective (see above).

verb

1. (transitive) To put up by the fitting together of materials or parts.
   to erect a house or a fort
2. (transitive) To cause to stand up or out.
3. To raise and place in an upright or perpendicular position; to set upright; to raise.
   to erect a pole, a flagstaff, a monument, etc.
   1. (intransitive, aviation, of a gyroscopic attitude indicator) To spin up and align to vertical.
      As soon as electrical power was restored, the attitude indicators' gyros would have begun to erect.
4. (transitive) To lift up; to elevate; to exalt; to magnify.
   , Preface I, who am a party, am not to erect myself into a judge.
5. (transitive) To animate; to encourage; to cheer.
6. (transitive, astrology) To cast or draw up (a figure of the heavens, horoscope etc.).
   In 1581 Parliament made it a statutory felony to erect figures, cast nativities, or calculate by prophecy how long the Queen would live or who would succeed her. 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 332
7. (intransitive) To enter a state of physiological erection.
   On the 17th of July, the patient returned to the country, perfectly healed: the penis erected and he was capable of coition. 1828, The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, page 113
   On an adequate stimulus the penis erected, the testes were drawn up, and the dartos muscle slowly contracted. 1917, Brain: A Journal of Neurology, page 292
   His black dick erected with a long bend. 2008-09-15, Naval Ahmed, Blue Moon On Bandideau, Lulu.com, page 234
   When the penis erects, blood pours into what erectile tissue there is and enlarges the penis somewhat, but by making it turgid, the S-shaped bend is straightened out and the penis extends. 2012-07-12, Tim Glover, Mating Males: An Evolutionary Perspective on Mammalian Reproduction, Cambridge University Press, page 126
8. (transitive) To set up as an assertion or consequence from premises, etc.
   Malebranche erects this proposition.
9. (transitive) To set up or establish; to found; to form; to institute.
   In 1686, he was appointed one of the Commissioners in the new ecclesiastical commission erected by King James, and was proud of that honour. 1812, Arthur Collins & Sir Egerton Brydges, Peerage of England, F.C. and J. Rivington et al, page 330