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