impious

comparative more impious · superlative most impious

1. Not pious.

   […] I alvvayes thought / It vvas both impious and vnnaturall, / That ſuch immanity and bloody ſtrife / Should reigne among Profeſſors of one Faith.

   1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 114, column 2

   Synonyms: blasphemous, undevout, ungodly, unholy, unpious, common, impure, mishallowed · Antonyms: pious, Allah-fearing, devout, devoutful, frum, godfearing, heavenly-minded, inward

2. Lacking reverence or respect, especially towards a god.

   […] surfaces too great to belong to anything right or proper for this earth, and impious with horrible images and hieroglyphs.

   1928 February, H[oward] P[hillips] Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”, in Farnsworth Wright, editor, Weird Tales: A Magazine of the Bizarre and Unusual, volume XI, number 2, Indianapolis, Ind.: Popular Fiction Publishing Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: impertinent, insolent, irreverent, audacious, bold, get wise, bold-faced, bold as brass