• Erect

    Pronunciation

    • Rhymes: -É›kt

    Origin

    From Latin Ä“rectus ("upright"), past participle of erigere ("raise, set up"), from e- ("up") + regere ("to direct, keep straight, guide").

    Full definition of erect

    Adjective

    erect

    1. Upright; vertical or reaching broadly upwards.
      • GibbonAmong the Greek colonies and churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect — a column of ruins.
    2. Rigid, firm; standing out perpendicularly.
    3. (obsolete) Bold; confident; free from depression; undismayed.
      • KebleBut who is he, by years
        Bowed, but erect in heart?
    4. (obsolete) Directed upward; raised; uplifted.
      • Alexander PopeHis piercing eyes, erect, appear to view
        Superior worlds, and look all nature through.
    5. Watchful; alert.
      • Hookervigilant and erect attention of mind
    6. (heraldry) Elevated, as the tips of wings, heads of serpents, etc.

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    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.
    4. To lift up; to elevate; to exalt; to magnify.
      • Danielthat didst his state above his hopes erect
      • DrydenI, who am a party, am not to erect myself into a judge.
    5. To animate; to encourage; to cheer.
      • BarrowIt raiseth the dropping spirit, erecting it to a loving complaisance.
    6. (astrology) To cast or draw up (a figure of the heavens, horoscope etc.).
      • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, p. 332: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.
    7. To set up as an assertion or consequence from premises, etc.
      • Sir Thomas Browneto erect conclusions.
      • John LockeMalebranche erects this proposition.
    8. To set up or establish; to found; to form; to institute.
      • Hookerto erect a new commonwealth

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