Perfunctory
adjective
Done quickly and without thought or care.
She gave a perfunctory nod.
Often appears as...
- perfunctory glance
- perfunctory nod
adjective
Showing little interest or enthusiasm.
The audience clapped in a perfunctory manner.
Often appears as...
- perfunctory applause
- perfunctory effort
adjective
Done quickly and without thought or care.
She gave a perfunctory nod.
Often appears as...
- perfunctory glance
- perfunctory nod
adjective
Showing little interest or enthusiasm.
The audience clapped in a perfunctory manner.
Often appears as...
- perfunctory applause
- perfunctory effort
Definition 1 of 2
Pro Tip 1/3Emotionless Execution
'Perfunctory' often implies a lack of emotion or interest in performing an action.
His handshake was perfunctory and cold.
Pro Tip 2/3Duty without Zeal
The word suggests someone is doing something out of obligation, not because they want to.
He delivered the speech with perfunctory enthusiasm.
Pro Tip 3/3Minimal Effort
Use 'perfunctory' to describe an action done with the least effort necessary.
She cleaned the room in a perfunctory way, missing many spots.
Pro Tip 1/3Emotionless Execution
'Perfunctory' often implies a lack of emotion or interest in performing an action.
His handshake was perfunctory and cold.
Pro Tip 2/3Duty without Zeal
The word suggests someone is doing something out of obligation, not because they want to.
He delivered the speech with perfunctory enthusiasm.
Pro Tip 3/3Minimal Effort
Use 'perfunctory' to describe an action done with the least effort necessary.
She cleaned the room in a perfunctory way, missing many spots.
Pro Tip 1/3Emotionless Execution
'Perfunctory' often implies a lack of emotion or interest in performing an action.
His handshake was perfunctory and cold.
Pro Tip 2/3Duty without Zeal
The word suggests someone is doing something out of obligation, not because they want to.
He delivered the speech with perfunctory enthusiasm.
Pro Tip 3/3Minimal Effort
Use 'perfunctory' to describe an action done with the least effort necessary.
She cleaned the room in a perfunctory way, missing many spots.
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Video examples
It's time to reclaim...
it is suffering from a second pernicious trend, what I call religious routine-ism. This is when our institutions and our leaders are stuck in a paradigm that is rote and perfunctory, devoid of life, devoid of vision
Video examples
Watching This Will Make...
some objects suggest that the world is actually basically banal and kind of perfunctory and ho-hum and they invite kind of indifference I think it's what
Video examples
It's time to reclaim...
it is suffering from a second pernicious trend, what I call religious routine-ism. This is when our institutions and our leaders are stuck in a paradigm that is rote and perfunctory, devoid of life, devoid of vision
Video examples
Watching This Will Make...
some objects suggest that the world is actually basically banal and kind of perfunctory and ho-hum and they invite kind of indifference I think it's what
Example 1 of 2
Quote examples
Martin Filler
American Critic
Picasso's superhuman gift for draftsmanship might have made him lazy about pursuing the full potential of color. It was not unusual for him to build a composition by first outlining figures and objects in black and then filling the interstices in a perfunctory manner that can put one in mind of a museum-shop coloring book.
Quote examples
Daniel Hannan
British Politician
When you repeat, in that wooden and perfunctory way, that our situation is better than others, that we're 'well-placed to weather the storm', I have to tell you that you sound like a Brezhnev-era apparatchik giving the party line.
Quote examples
Alan Huffman
American Author
Long-distance train conversations are unlike the perfunctory exchanges one normally associates with strangers, or the truncated, cut-to-the-chase kind that sometimes take place between seatmates on a plane.
Quote examples
Rob Sheffield
American Journalist
It's kind of amazing how popular 'Grey's Anatomy' is. What other show can boast such an annoyingly sincere cast of doctors, sniveling through such perfunctory love triangles?
Quote examples
Ivy Compton-Burnett
English Novelist
Time is not a great healer. It is an indifferent and perfunctory one. Sometimes it does not heal at all. And sometimes when it seems to, no healing has been necessary.
Quote examples
Thomas Frank
American Author
Promises to get beyond partisanship are the most perfunctory sort of campaign rhetoric, almost as empty as the partisanship itself.
Quote examples
Ron Perlman
American Actor
The thing that's cool about the recording booth is that it's so perfunctory, so cut-to-the-chase.
Quote examples
Martin Filler
American Critic
Picasso's superhuman gift for draftsmanship might have made him lazy about pursuing the full potential of color. It was not unusual for him to build a composition by first outlining figures and objects in black and then filling the interstices in a perfunctory manner that can put one in mind of a museum-shop coloring book.
Quote examples
Daniel Hannan
British Politician
When you repeat, in that wooden and perfunctory way, that our situation is better than others, that we're 'well-placed to weather the storm', I have to tell you that you sound like a Brezhnev-era apparatchik giving the party line.
Quote examples
Alan Huffman
American Author
Long-distance train conversations are unlike the perfunctory exchanges one normally associates with strangers, or the truncated, cut-to-the-chase kind that sometimes take place between seatmates on a plane.
Quote examples
Rob Sheffield
American Journalist
It's kind of amazing how popular 'Grey's Anatomy' is. What other show can boast such an annoyingly sincere cast of doctors, sniveling through such perfunctory love triangles?
Quote examples
Ivy Compton-Burnett
English Novelist
Time is not a great healer. It is an indifferent and perfunctory one. Sometimes it does not heal at all. And sometimes when it seems to, no healing has been necessary.
Quote examples
Thomas Frank
American Author
Promises to get beyond partisanship are the most perfunctory sort of campaign rhetoric, almost as empty as the partisanship itself.
Quote examples
Ron Perlman
American Actor
The thing that's cool about the recording booth is that it's so perfunctory, so cut-to-the-chase.
Example 1 of 7
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