piacle

[Lat. piaculum =a sin-offering, or expiation for crime, from pio =to expiate (q. v.).] A heinous crime, a sin. "Which I hold to be a very holy league, and no le than a piacle to infringe it."-Howell: Letters, bk. i., §i., IMG:content-1031.png:[blocks in formation] "The piacular rites of the Horatian family."- Lewis : Cred. Early Rom. Hist. (1855), ch. xi., § 18. 2. Requiring or calling for expiation or atonement; atrociously bad. "This was his piaculary heresy." - Hacket : Life of Will iams , i. 102.