What does "impious" mean?

Impious: 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. 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.

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