Library / English Dictionary

ERECT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of sexual organs; stiff and rigid

Synonyms:

erect; tumid

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

hard (resisting weight or pressure)

Domain category:

physiology (the branch of the biological sciences dealing with the functioning of organisms)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Upright in position or posture

Example:

he sat bolt upright

Synonyms:

erect; upright; vertical

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

straight; unbent; unbowed (erect in posture)

statant (standing on four feet)

stand-up (requiring a standing position)

standing (having a supporting base)

semi-upright (of animals that are partly erect)

semi-erect (of plants that are partly erect)

semi-climbing (of plants that are semi-climbers)

rampant; rearing (rearing on left hind leg with forelegs elevated and head usually in profile)

passant (in walking position with right foreleg raised)

orthostatic (pertaining to an upright standing posture)

fastigiate (having clusters of erect branches (often appearing to form a single column))

erectile (capable of being raised to an upright position)

Attribute:

attitude; position; posture (the arrangement of the body and its limbs)

Antonym:

unerect (not upright in position or posture)

Derivation:

erectness (position at right angles to the horizon)

erectness (the property of being upright in posture)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Construct, build, or erect

Example:

Raise a barn

Synonyms:

erect; put up; raise; rear; set up

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "erect" is one way to...):

build; construct; make (make by combining materials and parts)

Domain category:

building; construction (the act of constructing something)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

erecting; erection (the act of building or putting up)

erection (a structure that has been erected)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to rise up

Synonyms:

erect; rear

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "erect" is one way to...):

bring up; elevate; get up; lift; raise (raise from a lower to a higher position)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "erect"):

pitch; set up (erect and fasten)

cock up; prick; prick up (raise)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

erection (the act of building or putting up)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The Pembroke Welsh Corgi is a long, low dog with large erect ears, a broad flat skull and a fox-like head.

(Pembroke Welsh Corgi, NCI Thesaurus)

Headache in erect position, after lumbar puncture; due to lowering of intracranial pressure by leakage of cerebrospinal fluid through the needle tract.

(Lumbar Puncture Headache, NCI Thesaurus)

It has short, erect ears and a short-haired coat that is fawn to red to mahogany with black tips, mask, and ears.

(Belgian Malinois, NCI Thesaurus)

It has thick, erect, medium-length hair with a thick under-layer of straight hair.

(Finnish Spitz, NCI Thesaurus)

The plants are described as glabrous perennials, erect and usually woody at the base.

(Hypericum perforatum, NCI Thesaurus)

Keeshonden are compact little animals with a strong resemblance to its ancestor the Samoyed, with oblique chestnut eyes, and erect triangular ears.

(Keeshond, NCI Thesaurus)

She approached more cautiously, and the cub had full opportunity to observe her lean, snakelike body, and her head, erect, eager, and snake-like itself.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It is a creature walking erect upon three-toed feet, and occasionally putting one of its five-fingered forepaws upon the ground.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In answer to my inquiries after the use of this article, she informed me it was a covering for the altar of a new church lately erected near Gateshead.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Presently she laughed and showed him a small sketch of Jo in her scribbling suit, with the bow rampantly erect upon her cap, and issuing from her mouth the words, 'Genius burns!'.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)