erection

noun

1. (uncountable)The act of building or putting up or together of something.
2. (countable)Anything erected or built.

   “The Empire State Building was once the world's tallest erection.”

   “If any serious number of deck erections have been left unfaired, these percentages will be too low.”

3. (countable, uncountable)Formal approval and official establishment of an institution such as a society or a monastery by higher church authorities.

   “There is some obscurity attaching to the only other one of those alleged erections of parishes, the case of Foot Dee, near Aberdeen.”

   “If the erection of a society is made with pontifical authority, then the society is one of pontifical legal status from its inception.”

   “Concerns for its usefulness to the particular church and the institute should be seriously considered by the diocesan bishop and the major superior before the canonical erection of a house takes place.”

4. (uncountable)The physiological process by which erectile tissue, such as a penis or clitoris, becomes erect by being engorged with blood.

   “I think that the case also demonstrates some singular aspects of the penis as a narrator of tales, specifically the way in which the erection of a penis falls outside a man's conscious control and therefore threatens a carefully constructed master legal narrative in which bodily self-control graphically represents the self-government contemplated by a democratic legal society.”

   “There are men who say they cannot bear to show themselves naked before women unless in a state of erection; and indeed through erection the flesh becomes activity, potency, […]”

   “A marriage was only consummated via erection, penetration, and insemination intra vas.”

5. (uncountable)The state or quality of being erect from engorgement with blood.

   “[…] but our experienc'd matron very soon, by chafing it with her hands, brought it to swell to that size and erection I had before seen it up to.”

   “Older men typically require longer periods of time to achieve erection and reach orgasm.”

   “A very rare complication is priapism, where the penis maintains its erection for many hours.”

6. (countable)A penis or clitoris that is erect.

   “He placed his newspaper on his lap to hide his erection.”

   “Nothing is more short-lived than the erection; like the crocus of spring, it is there for a moment, and then it is gone; one moment the penis is small, soft, and insignificant, and then in the next it is hard, rigid, and three and four times its previous size.”

   “The surge of hormones during puberty means you might have lots of erections, even when you don't want them—like during school.”

   “Prem was sure everyone could see his erection through his pants, everyone but Maya, who he had been careful to keep to his side all the time”

   “He kissed her again, this time with a long, moist kiss that gave him an erection.”