perfunctorily
English edit
Etymology edit
perfunctory + -ly
Pronunciation edit
Adverb edit
perfunctorily (comparative more perfunctorily, superlative most perfunctorily)
- In a perfunctory manner, without interest or concern for quality.
- 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
- And it was while all were passionately intent upon the pleasing and snake-like progress of their uncle that a young girl in furs, ascending the stairs two at a time, peeped perfunctorily into the nursery as she passed the hallway—and halted amazed.
- 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 606:
- Lim Cheng Po said an Anglican prayer or two, not too perfunctorily.
- 1997, David Foster Wallace, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again”, in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Kindle edition, Little, Brown Book Group:
- Tibor was circling the table and asking each of us how our entrée was, and we all regarded this as just one of those perfunctory waiter-questions and all perfunctorily smiled and cleared our mouths and said Fine, Fine—and Tibor finally stopped and looked down at us all with a pained expression and changed his timbre slightly so it was clear he was addressing the whole table: “Please. I ask each: is excellent? […] ”
Translations edit
in a perfunctory manner
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