PIETY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does piety mean? 

• PIETY (noun)
  The noun PIETY has 1 sense:

1. righteousness by virtue of being pious

  Familiarity information: PIETY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PIETY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Righteousness by virtue of being pious

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

piety; piousness

Hypernyms ("piety" is a kind of...):

righteousness (adhering to moral principles)

Attribute:

pious (having or showing or expressing reverence for a deity)

impious (lacking piety or reverence for a god)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "piety"):

devoutness; religiousness (piety by virtue of being devout)

dutifulness (piety by virtue of devotion to duty)

godliness (piety by virtue of being a godly person)

Antonym:

impiety (unrighteousness by virtue of lacking respect for a god)

 Context examples 

I've thought it all out in this here lonely island, and I'm back on piety.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He waited three days longer, and then his piety or his superstition drove him to try once more.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Simple, sincere people seldom speak much of their piety.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was written with a plain, unaffected, homely piety that I knew to be genuine, and ended with “my duty to my ever darling”—meaning myself.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I have a little boy, younger than you, who knows six Psalms by heart: and when you ask him which he would rather have, a gingerbread-nut to eat or a verse of a Psalm to learn, he says: 'Oh! the verse of a Psalm! angels sing Psalms;' says he, 'I wish to be a little angel here below;' he then gets two nuts in recompense for his infant piety.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The young Mrs. Eleanors and Mrs. Bridgets—starched up into seeming piety, but with heads full of something very different—especially if the poor chaplain were not worth looking at—and, in those days, I fancy parsons were very inferior even to what they are now.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

And thus he continued on, while my colour came and went several times, with indignation, to hear our noble country, the mistress of arts and arms, the scourge of France, the arbitress of Europe, the seat of virtue, piety, honour, and truth, the pride and envy of the world, so contemptuously treated.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The war is over, and Mr. March safely at home, busy with his books and the small parish which found in him a minister by nature as by grace, a quiet, studious man, rich in the wisdom that is better than learning, the charity which calls all mankind 'brother', the piety that blossoms into character, making it august and lovely.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It does not appear, from all you have said, how any one perfection is required toward the procurement of any one station among you; much less, that men are ennobled on account of their virtue; that priests are advanced for their piety or learning; soldiers, for their conduct or valour; judges, for their integrity; senators, for the love of their country; or counsellors for their wisdom.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I mean the timorous or carping few who doubt the tendency of such books as Jane Eyre: in whose eyes whatever is unusual is wrong; whose ears detect in each protest against bigotry—that parent of crime—an insult to piety, that regent of God on earth.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)