pious, a.
(ˈpaɪəs)
[f. L. pi-us dutiful, pious + -ous: cf. mod.F. pieux, -euse (R. Estienne 1539), which may have been the model.]
1. ‘Careful of the duties owed by created beings to God’ (J.); characterized by or showing reverence and obedience to God (or the gods); faithful to religious duties and observances; devout, godly, religious. a. Of persons.
pious founder, the founder of a college or other endowment for the glory of God and the good of his fellow-men.
| 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. i. iii. 16 Now (pious Sir) You will demand of me, why I do this. 1605 ― Macb. iii. vi. 27. 1616 Bullokar Eng. Expos., Pious, godly, vertuous. 1627 Balcanqual Stat. Heriot's Hosp. Edinb. ii, The bountiefull mantenance which they living thair receave from the charitie of thair pious founder. 1628 Wither Brit. Rememb. 8 For we doe reade, that Kings who pioust were Had wicked subjects. a 1715 Burnet Own Time (1823) IV. 47 Mackay..was the piousest man I ever knew. 1746 Warton Progr. Discontent 120 And din'd untax'd untroubled, under The portrait of our pious founder. 1763 Johnson 1 July in Boswell, Campbell is a good man, a pious man..he never passes a church without pulling off his hat. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. iv, I asked one of your references, and he said you were pious. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life, Fate Wks. (Bohn) II. 321 What pious men in the parlour will vote for what reprobates at the polls! |
b. Of actions, things, etc.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. i. 48 'Tis too much prou'd, that with Deuotions visage, And pious Action, we do sugre o're The diuell himselfe. 1628 Wither Brit. Rememb. 200 Those thy gifts that cary The pioust showes have scarce been voluntary. 1678 Marvell Growth Popery Wks. (Gros.) IV. 257 That so great a part of the land should be alienated..to, as they call it, Pious Uses. 1781 Crabbe Library 502 Old pious tracts, and Bibles bound in wood. 1874 J. Sully Sensation & Intuition 116 Pious attempts to coerce belief. |
c. Of fraud or the like: Practised for the sake of religion or for a good object, or ‘under the appearance of religion’ (J.): see also fraud n. 3 c.
| 1637 R. Humfrey tr. St. Ambrose ii. 43 He sought the presence of his deare brother Benjamin by a pious kind of fraud. 1660 tr. Amyraldus' Treat. conc. Relig. iii. x. 512 Which are..Pious Frauds (as they speak) useful to very advantageous effects. 1678– [see fraud n. 3 c]. 1813 Gen. Hist. in Ann. Reg. 9/2 The necessity under which judges and juries so frequently laboured, of committing what had been called pious perjuries. |
d. Phr. pious hope, an extravagant or unrealistic hope expressed in order to preserve an appearance of optimism.
| 1907 R. Fry Let. 3 Apr. (1972) I. 283 Mr Morgan..secured three [pictures] for himself and expressed a pious hope that the Museum might be able to buy the rest! 1931 Economist 11 Apr. 773/2 That this, as the phrasing suggests, is only a pious hope is apparent when the attitude of the three main groups of countries concerned is considered. 1977 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 15 Sept. 15/1 The pious hope—by no means an assumption—that the biographer's psychological acuity, powers of empathy, respect for fact, general culture, and sense of proportion would prevent the appearance of yet one more in a series of glib psychobiographies. 1978 Ld. Drogheda Double Harness xxi. 288 Despite all the pious hopes, disappointments persisted. |
2. Faithful to the duties naturally owed to parents, relatives, friends, superiors, etc.; characterized by loyal affection, esp. to parents; dutiful, duteous. Of persons (also of birds), or actions, etc. Now rare or arch.
| 1626 Massinger Rom. Actor ii. i, May it succeed well, Since my intents are pious! 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 59 White marble Pillars, a top of which now inhabit the pious Storkes. 1703 Rowe Ulyss. ii. i. 765 Love and willing Friendship Employ their pious Offices in Vain. 1819 Keats St. Agnes xxii, With..pious care She..the aged gossip led. |