SUPERFICIAL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Superficial

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/sˌupərfˈɪʃəl/ Listen

adjective

Superficial adj.

Of or pertaining to the superficies, or surface; lying on the surface; shallow; not deep; as, a superficial color; a superficial covering; superficial measure or contents; superficial tillage.

Reaching or comprehending only what is obvious or apparent; not deep or profound; shallow; said especially in respect to study, learning, and the like; as, a superficial scholar; superficial knowledge. "This superficial tale Is but a preface of her worthy praise." "He is a presumptuous and superficial writer." "That superficial judgment, which happens to be right without deserving to be so."

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Etymology of 'Superficial'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Superficial" Quotes from Famous Books

... and poet, "dinnered wi' a lord." The story goes that he was put at the second table. That lord is dead, but Robert Burns still lives. He is immortal. It is "the survival of the fittest" "For a' That and a' That" is a poem that wipes out the superficial value put on money and other externalities. This poem is more valuable in education than good penmanship or good ...

— Poems Every Child Should Know - The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library • Various

... Scot was certainly not a scholar in the sense in which the term is applied to the Scaligers, Casaubons, and Vossius's, though he would have been considered a prodigy of reading in these days of superficial acquisition. But he had original gifts far transcending scholarship. He had a manly, straightforward, vigorous understanding, which, united with an honest integrity of purpose, kept him right when greater men went wrong. How invaluable a phalanx would the battalion ...

— Discovery of Witches - The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster • Thomas Potts

... except falling out of love. Especially was this the case in the days when the wooden clippers did finely to land you in Sydney or in Melbourne under the four full months. We all saw far too much of each other, unless, indeed, we were to see still more. Our superficial attractions mutually exhausted, we lost heart and patience in the disappointing strata which lie between the surface and the bed-rock of most natures. My own experience was confined to the round voyage of the Lady Jermyn, in the year 1853. It ...

— Dead Men Tell No Tales • E. W. Hornung

... fact of being tortured and annoyed here on earth, which has in itself any direct and necessary tendency to prepare us for the enjoyment, or to secure to us the possession, of future blessedness. You often hear superficial people saying, 'Oh! he has been very much troubled here, but there will be amends for it hereafter.' Yes; God would wish to make amends for it hereafter, but He cannot do so unless we comply with the conditions. And it needs that we should keep ...

— Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts • Alexander Maclaren

... was, indeed, little doubt but that the shoe-store proprietor below was an accomplice! The store served a most convenient purpose in every respect—as a secret means of entry into the room, as a sort of guarantee of innocence for the room itself. Why not! To the superficial observer, to the man who might by some chance blunder into the room—it was but an ...

— The Adventures of Jimmie Dale • Frank L. Packard

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