Definition of "phallic" [phal•lic]

• Of, relating to, or resembling a phallus. (adjective)
• Of or relating to the cult of the phallus as an embodiment of generative power: phallic worship. (adjective)
• Of or relating to the third stage of psychosexual development in psychoanalytic theory, from about ages three to six, during which gratification is focused on sensations associated with the genital organs. The phallic stage is preceded by the anal stage and followed by the latency period. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "And the manner in which political manhood gets displayed is tiresomely predictable: macho chest beating, posing with the fetish objects of anxious masculinity (trucks, big machines, and even bigger weapons), humiliating your opponent with castrating insults, calling into question his or her ability to be tough, ruthless, and merciless with the designated enemy of the moment -- in short, phallic strutting."
• "No problem acknowledging also that among the many different traditions, practices and stories that have fused and sometimes not even touched and just hung around together in what we now call Hinduism, there is room, and maybe even some intellectual and spiritual value in some contexts, for what is still quite crudely called the "phallic" perspective."
• "They occur in all languages, and hint how readily the worship of fire glided into that of the reproductive principle, into extravagances of chastity and lewdness, into the shocking orgies of the so-called phallic worship."