in piety

English

A pelican in her piety.

Phrase

in piety

1. (heraldry, of a pelican) Vulning.
   • 1892, John Woodward, George Burnett, A Treatise on Heraldry, British and Foreign: With English and French Glossaries, page 264:

     THE PELICAN is represented in both British and Foreign Armory with a bowed neck vulning (ie . wounding) her breast; [...] Argent, three pelicans in piety or, their nests vert, was borne by the Scottish family of PATTERSON.

   • 1897, William Kirkpatrick Riland Bedford, The Blazon of Episcopacy: Being the Arms Borne by Or Attributed to the Archbishops and Bishops of England and Wales with an Ordinary of the Coats Described and of Other Episcopal Arms, page 189:

     Argent, a pelican in piety vert. SHERBURN, St. David's 1505; Chichester 1508. Azure, a pelican in piety or. WAKERING, Norwich 1416. Fox, Exeter 1487; Bath and Wells 1492; Durham 1495; Winchester 1501.

   • 1904, William Rae Macdonald, Scottish Armorial Seals, page 276:

     Sinister: Three pelicans in their piety, on a chief three stars. Motto, on an escroll above the mitre : PRO REGE ET GREGE.

Usage notes

• Also found with pronouns (a pelican in her piety, in its piety, even in his piety).