impious Meaning, Definition & Usage

adjective lacking piety or reverence for a god
adjective satellite lacking due respect or dutifulness
undutiful.
- impious toward one's parents
- an undutiful son

L. impius; pref. im- not + pius piou. See Pious.

Not pious; wanting piety; irreligious; irreverent; ungodly; profane; wanting in reverence for the Supreme Being; as, an impious deed; impious language.
When vice prevails, and impious men bear away, The post of honor is a private station. Addison.
Syn. -- Impious, Irreligious, Profane. Irreligious is negative, impious and profane are positive. An indifferent man may be irreligious; a profane man is irreverent in speech and conduct; an impious man is wickedly and boldly defiant in the strongest sense. Profane also has the milder sense of secular. C. J. Smith. -- Im"pi*ous*ly, adv. -- Im"pi*ous*ness, n.