INIQUITY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Iniquity

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/ɪnˈɪkwɪti/ Listen

noun

Iniquity n. (pl. iniquities)

Absence of, or deviation from, just dealing; lack of rectitude or uprightness; gross injustice; unrighteousness; wickedness; as, the iniquity of bribery; the iniquity of an unjust judge. "Till the world from his perfection fell Into all filth and foul iniquity."

An iniquitous act or thing; a deed of injustice or unrighteousness; a sin; a crime. "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God."

A character or personification in the old English moralities, or moral dramas, having the name sometimes of one vice and sometimes of another. See Vice. "Acts old Iniquity, and in the fit Of miming gets the opinion of a wit."

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Etymology of 'Iniquity'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Iniquity" Quotes from Famous Books

... no great resemblance between the pair. How could there be indeed between a man on the wrong side of middle age, one-eyed, grizzled, battered, and bearing about with him an atmosphere of iniquity, and a young gentleman, handsome, distinguished, and wayward, but assuredly no criminal? Yet the likeness existed. She had seen it first when Adrian was pointing out to her how, were he a general, he would ...

— Lysbeth - A Tale Of The Dutch • H. Rider Haggard

... other laudatory of the readiness of its service. "A pox o' these pretenders to wit!" runs the first passage. "Your Three Cranes, Mitre, and Mermaid men! Not a corn of true salt, not a grain of right mustard amongst them all." And here is the other side of the shield, credited to Iniquity in "The Devil ...

— Inns and Taverns of Old London • Henry C. Shelley

... undertake, therefore, to deny artists the right to probe the wounds of society and lay them bare before our eyes; but is there nothing better to be done to-day than to depict the terrifying and the threatening? In this literature of mysteries of iniquity, which talent and imagination have made fashionable, we prefer the mild, attractive figures to the villains for dramatic effect. The former may undertake and effect conversions, the others cause fear, and fear does not ...

— The Devil's Pool • George Sand

... interest. Finger-prints, in those days, had not yet been recognized by the public or the police as effective means of identification. But they were well known to scientific men and I had given the subject some attention myself. And the sight of those signs-manual of iniquity had an immediate effect on me; they converted the unknown perpetrator of this horror from a mere abstraction of disaster into a real, living person. With a sudden flush of hate and loathing, I realized that this wretch was even now walking the streets or lurking ...

— The Uttermost Farthing - A Savant's Vendetta • R. Austin Freeman

... infliction of temporary punishment. A set of desperate and hardened villains leagued themselves for the purposes of depredation, and, as it generally happens, had art enough to persuade some others, less deeply versed in iniquity, to be the instruments for carrying it on. Fortunately the progress of these miscreants was not of long duration. They were detected in stealing a large quantity of provisions at the time of issuing them. And ...

— A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay • Watkin Tench

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