Adjacent Words

Impious definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

IM'PIOUS, a. [L. impius; in and pius, pious.]
1. Irreverent towards the Supreme Being; wanting in veneration for God and his authority; irreligious; profane. The scoffer at God and his authority is impious. The profane swear is impious.
When vice prevails and impious men bear sway,
The post of honor is a private station.
2. Irreverent towards God; proceeding from or manifesting a contempt for the Supreme Being; tending to dishonor God or his laws,and bring them into contempt; as an impious deed; impious language; impious writings.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: lacking piety or reverence for a god [ant: pious]
2: lacking due respect or dutifulness; "impious toward one's parents"; "an undutiful son" [syn: impious, undutiful]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Latin impius, from in- + pius pious Date: 1542 not pious ; lacking in reverence or proper respect (as for God or one's parents) ; irreverent • impiously adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 not pious. 2 wicked, profane. Derivatives: impiously adv. impiousness n. Etymology: L impius (as IN-(1), PIOUS)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Impious Im"pi*ous, a. [L. impius; pref. im- not + pius piou. See Pious.] Not pious; wanting piety; irreligious; irreverent; ungodly; profane; wanting in reverence for the Supreme Being; as, an impious deed; impious language. When vice prevails, and impious men bear away, The post of honor is a private station. --Addison. Syn: Impious, Irreligious, Profane. Usage: Irreligious is negative, impious and profane are positive. An indifferent man may be irreligious; a profane man is irreverent in speech and conduct; an impious man is wickedly and boldly defiant in the strongest sense. Profane also has the milder sense of secular. --C. J. Smith. -- Im"pi*ous*ly, adv. -- Im"pi*ous*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you describe someone as impious, you mean that they show a lack of respect for religious things. (FORMAL) = irreverent ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Irreverent, ungodly, irreligious, blasphemous, wicked, sinful, unrighteous, unholy, iniquitous, profane.

Moby Thesaurus

apostate, arch, atheistic, backsliding, blasphemous, casual, coltish, contrary, devil-may-care, disobedient, elvish, fallen, fallen from grace, flippant, free and easy, fresh, frolicsome, froward, giddy, godless, iconoclastic, impish, iniquitous, irreligious, irreverent, lapsed, mischievous, offhand, pert, perverse, pixieish, profanatory, profane, puckish, recidivist, recidivistic, recreant, renegade, roguish, sacrilegious, saucy, scandalous, sinful, sportive, un-Christly, unangelic, unchristian, undevout, unduteous, undutiful, unfaithful, ungodly, unhallowed, unholy, unrighteous, unsaintly, waggish, wayward, wicked, wrongheaded