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Perfunctory   /pərfˈəŋktəri/   Listen
adjective
Perfunctory  adj.  
1.
Done merely to get rid of a duty; performed mechanically and as a thing of rote; done in a careless and superficial manner; characterized by indifference; as, perfunctory admonitions; a perfunctory greeting.
2.
Hence: Mechanical; indifferent; listless; careless. "Perfunctory in his devotions."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Perfunctory" Quotes from Famous Books



... genius and poverty. Lord Rosebery was talking nonsense, and as with all his faults he cannot be charged with the stupidity of his class, he must have known that he was talking nonsense. The truth is that as the official mouthpiece of the nation he was merely trying to excuse, in an official perfunctory way, the inexcusable behaviour of ...
— Books and Persons - Being Comments on a Past Epoch 1908-1911 • Arnold Bennett
... reached for the telephone and called an ambulance. But it was purely perfunctory. Dr. Leslie himself was the only official who could handle ...
— The War Terror • Arthur B. Reeve
... merchantman, brightly lighted, was near. The scene was peaceful, quiet, beautiful. True, in the minds of many officers and men on the American warship there was a lurking and indefinable sense of danger. Their coming had been taken by the Spaniards in Havana as a hostile act. Though all the perfunctory requirements of international courtesy had been complied with, salutes interchanged, visits of ceremony paid and returned, there was yet in the Spanish greeting an ill-concealed tone of anger. In the cafes Spanish officers cursed the Yankees and boasted of their purpose to destroy them. On the ...
— The Naval History of the United States - Volume 2 (of 2) • Willis J. Abbot
... guiltily. He had been dimly aware that some one was sitting there, but, being occupied with other things, had not given a thought to the sitter, or a glance. Now he did both while he said good afternoon with perfunctory politeness. ...
— The Happy Family • Bertha Muzzy Bower
... who carried Miriam to the hospital. About her door John hung like a miserable debarred ghost, for after the first few days her mind wandered painfully, and his presence excited her dangerously. For weeks he vacillated between perfunctory work at the office, unsatisfactory talks with busy doctors and impatient nurses, and long apprehensive hours in what had been home. In "Little Venice," in the best powder-blue jar and the rest, he found no solace, on the contrary, the ...
— The Collectors • Frank Jewett Mather


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