All 9 Uses of

pious
in
Arrowsmith

They danced hand in hand about the living-room of the fraternity, piously assuring one another, "He'll use it—it's all right—he'll get through or get hanged!"
Chpt 3 *

piously = clinging to a sincere wish that is highly unlikely

Her father, Andrew Jackson Tozer, sometimes known as Jackass Tozer; owner of the bank, of the creamery, and an elevator, therefore the chief person in town; pious at Wednesday evening prayer-meeting, fussing over every penny he gave to Leora or her mother.
Chpt 6

pious = highly religious

The bed in his room was lumpy but covered with a chaste figured spread, and the flowery pitcher and bowl rested on a cover embroidered in red with lambs, frogs, water lilies, and a pious motto.
Chpt 9

pious = religious or moral

He alleged that he was a licensed pharmacist but he so mangled prescriptions that Martin burst into the store and addressed him piously.
Chpt 15 *

piously = in a self-righteous or holier-than-thou manner

Mrs. Tredgold, best natured as she was least pious of women, adopted her complete.
Chpt 22

pious = religious

God give me a restlessness whereby I may neither sleep nor accept praise till my observed results equal my calculated results or in pious glee I discover and assault my error.
Chpt 26 *

pious = highly religious and highly moral

He walked out of the McGurk Building in a melancholy, deprecatory way, with one breeches leg bulging over his riding-boots; and however piously he tried, he never remembered to button his blouse over the violet-flowered shirts which, he often confided, you could buy ever so cheap on Eighth Avenue.
Chpt 27

piously = earnestly attempting to do the right thing

The line of trucks roared down to Carib, the rat-catchers sitting atop, singing pious hymns.
Chpt 34

pious = religious

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)
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."