perfunctory
Americanadjective
-
performed merely as a routine duty; hasty and superficial.
perfunctory courtesy.
- Synonyms:
- uninterested, thoughtless, heedless, negligent
-
lacking interest, care, or enthusiasm; indifferent or apathetic.
In his lectures he reveals himself to be merely a perfunctory speaker.
- Synonyms:
- uninterested, thoughtless, heedless, negligent
adjective
-
done superficially, only as a matter of routine; careless or cursory
-
dull or indifferent
Other Word Forms
- perfunctorily adverb
- perfunctoriness noun
Etymology
Origin of perfunctory
1575–85; < Late Latin perfūnctōrius negligent, superficial, derivative of perfungī to do one's job, be done, equivalent to per- per- + fung-, base of fungī to perform, function + -tōrius -tory 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As I visited congressional offices this week, meeting with sources and watching members of Congress interact with their constituents, it felt perfunctory — and, in some cases, sad.
From Salon
What surprised me at the time was how homogeneous board discussions and decisions were, with votes often being unanimous and seemingly perfunctory.
It is preceded by musings that perhaps a king shouldn’t have the absolute powers he does—which felt like a perfunctory contemporary allusion.
"The tsunami of complaints suggests that consultation was either perfunctory or they listened to the wrong people," Mr Pearson said.
From BBC
The perfunctory signage and wall text seem to be deliberate: How many visitors want to get bogged down in details, the GEM seems to reason.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
