| The policy of making only a perfunctory effort or symbolic gesture toward the accomplishment of a goal, such as racial integration. |
| Arliss's direction does often appear perfunctory, and his actors remembered him as a rather cold, distant figure. |
| Friday's rain-lashed practice session was no more than a few perfunctory laps to give the spectators something to watch. |
| The room was perfunctory, with a bed and wardrobe, and behind a privacy screen lay a simple bathroom. |
| The relentlessness of the jokes grows wearisome, and the ending is perfunctory and trite. |
| Some of the perfunctory descriptions they offer of the movies they sell on DVD are a scream. |
