Emily Dickinson Lexicon

IM-PI'E-TY, n. [Fr. impieté; L. impietas; in and pietas, pius.]

1. Ungodliness; irreverence toward the Supreme Being; contempt of the divine character and authority; neglect of the divine precepts. These constitute different degrees of impiety.
2. Any act of wickedness, as blasphemy and scoffing at the Supreme Being, or at his authority; profaneness. Any expression of contempt for God or his laws, constitutes an impiety of the highest degree of criminality. Disobedience to the divine commands or neglect of duty implies contempt for his authority, and is therefore impiety. Impiety, when it expresses the temper or disposition, has no plural; but it is otherwise when it expresses an act of wickedness, for all such acts are impieties.