Pious woman inappropriate, going topless in stable (6)

I believe the answer is:

strong

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'stable' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'pious woman inappropriate going topless' is the wordplay.
'pious woman' becomes 'st' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'inappropriate' becomes 'wrong' (synonyms).
'going topless' means to remove the first letter.
'wrong' with its first letter taken off is 'rong'.
'st'+'rong'='STRONG'

'in' is the link.

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(Other definitions for strong that I've seen before include "muscular or concentrated" , "Robust and muscular" , "curator" , "Resilient" , "Intense" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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