Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PHAR-I-SA'IC, or PHAR-I-SA'IC-AL, a. [from Pharisee.]

Pertaining to the Pharisees; resembling the Pharisees, a sect among the Jews, distinguished by their zeal for the traditions of the elders, and by their exact observance of these traditions and the ritual law. Hence pharisaic denotes addicted to external forms and ceremonies; making a show of religion without the spirit of it; as, pharisaic holiness. – Bacon.