PIOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does pious mean? 

• PIOUS (adjective)
  The adjective PIOUS has 1 sense:

1. having or showing or expressing reverence for a deity

  Familiarity information: PIOUS used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PIOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having or showing or expressing reverence for a deity

Context example:

pious readings

Similar:

devotional (relating to worship)

godly; reverent; worshipful (showing great reverence for god)

holier-than-thou; pharisaic; pharisaical; pietistic; pietistical; sanctimonious; self-righteous (excessively or hypocritically pious)

prayerful (disposed to pray or appearing to pray)

Also:

religious (having or showing belief in and reverence for a deity)

sacred (concerned with religion or religious purposes)

virtuous (morally excellent)

unworldly (not concerned with the temporal world or swayed by mundane considerations)

Attribute:

piety; piousness (righteousness by virtue of being pious)

Antonym:

impious (lacking piety or reverence for a god)

Derivation:

piousness (righteousness by virtue of being pious)

 Context examples 

Ah, well, said he, but I had—remarkable pious.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Mrs. Micawber shook her head, and dropped a pious tear upon the twin who happened to be in hand.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Here was this good and pious lady pursued from place to place by a sinister and unrelenting figure.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The pious Alleyne was deeply shocked by this reminiscence.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Esther was truly pious, and quite sincere in her advice, for she had an affectionate heart, and felt much for the sisters in their anxiety.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Mrs. Dent here bent over to the pious lady and whispered something in her ear; I suppose, from the answer elicited, it was a reminder that one of the anathematised race was present.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But I do not remember I gave you power to consent that any thing should be omitted, and much less that any thing should be inserted; therefore, as to the latter, I do here renounce every thing of that kind; particularly a paragraph about her majesty Queen Anne, of most pious and glorious memory; although I did reverence and esteem her more than any of human species.

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

There were several books on a shelf; one lay beside the tea things open, and Utterson was amazed to find it a copy of a pious work, for which Jekyll had several times expressed a great esteem, annotated, in his own hand with startling blasphemies.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

And, as to hopes of a glorious resurrection, I've often heard him say masel' that he hoped he'd go to hell, for his mother was so pious that she'd be sure to go to heaven, an' he didn't want to addle where she was.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“This mention of a woman may turn their minds from their pious meditations to worldly and evil thoughts.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)