perfunctory
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.
Right there, you have the perfect shadow-docket sandwich: perfunctory, bad decisionmaking, conclusory predictions about what constitutes an “emergency” and who’s going to win, decided in a couple of days, wiping out extensive factual findings.
From Slate • Jan. 3, 2026
It is preceded by musings that perhaps a king shouldn’t have the absolute powers he does—which felt like a perfunctory contemporary allusion.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 17, 2025
Fifteen minutes after Celtic issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph, 134-word statement, the howitzer landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.
From BBC • Oct. 27, 2025
We get a few perfunctory glimpses of what the brass is like when they’re out of uniform and quiet; it comes as a relief.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 9, 2025
Without even perfunctory regrets at the man’s passing, he accused Luthuli of being a patsy of the white man, mainly on the grounds that the chief had accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.