All 6 Uses
pious
in
Dubliners
(Edited)
- "God have mercy on his soul," said my aunt piously.
Chpt 1piously = in a highly moral or religious manner
- She was an old garrulous woman, a pawnbroker's widow, who collected used stamps for some pious purpose.
Chpt 3pious = highly moral
- Not for a pious chap like you, Tommy.
Chpt 8pious = highly moral or religious
- He was sober, thrifty and pious; he went to the altar every first Friday, sometimes with her, oftener by himself.
Chpt 13pious = highly religious and moral
- Mr. Power turned to Mrs. Kernan and said with abrupt joviality: "Well, Mrs. Kernan, we're going to make your man here a good holy pious and God-fearing Roman Catholic."
Chpt 14pious = religious
- They are very good men, the monks, very pious men.
Chpt 15 *pious = highly religious and moral
Definitions:
-
(1)
(pious as in: a good, pious woman) religious or highly moral
-
(2)
(pious as in: a pious hypocrite) self-righteous (acting as though one is, or believing one is highly moral when it is not true)
-
(3)
(pious as in: cling to the pious hope) (describing a hope or wish as) sincere, but highly unlikely
-
(4)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) Much more rarely, piety can refer to devotion or faithfulness as Proust used it in the book, Swann's Way:
"...but when, as had befallen me, such an anguish possesses one's soul before Love has yet entered into one's life, then it must drift, awaiting Love's coming, vague and free, without precise attachment, at the disposal of one sentiment to-day, of another to-morrow, of filial piety or affection for a comrade."