Passing vs Perfunctory - What's the difference?
passing | perfunctory | Related terms |
That passes away; ephemeral.
* 1814 , (Lord Byron), Lara , I.15:
* 2010 , Marianne Kirby, The Guardian , 21 Sep 2010:
* Shakespeare
* 1835 , (Washington Irving), The Crayon Miscellany :
* 1847 , Robert Holmes, The Case of Ireland Stated :
vague, cursory.
* 2011 , Stewart J Lawrence, The Guardian , 14 Jun 2011:
going past - passing cars.
* 1813 , (Percy Bysshe Shelley), Queen Mab , I:
* 2010 , Simon Hattenstone, The Guardian , 30 Oct 2010:
Death, dying; the end of something.
The fact of going past; a movement from one place to another or a change from one state to another.
* (Oliver Onions), The Story of Louie
(legal) The act of approving a bill etc.
(sports) The act of passing a ball etc. to another player.
A form of juggling where several people pass props between each other, usually clubs or rings.
Done merely to discharge a duty; performed mechanically and as a thing of rote; done in a careless and superficial manner; characterized by indifference; as, perfunctory admonitions; aspiring only to minimum standards.
* 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter VIII
* 1992 , Peter Bowbrick, The Economics of Quality, Grades, and Brands ,
Passing is a related term of perfunctory.
As adjectives the difference between passing and perfunctory
is that passing is that passes away; ephemeral while perfunctory is done merely to discharge a duty; performed mechanically and as a thing of rote; done in a careless and superficial manner; characterized by indifference; as, perfunctory admonitions; aspiring only to minimum standards.As a verb passing
is .As an adverb passing
is .As a noun passing
is death, dying; the end of something.passing
English
Verb
(head)Adjective
(en adjective)- And solace sought he none from priest nor leech, / And soon the same in movement and in speech / As heretofore he fill'd the passing hours
- It might be possible to dismiss
- dittowatch as just another passing internet fancy. After all, hashtags are ephemeral.
- her passing deformity
- It was by dint of passing strength, / That he moved the massy stone at length.
- That parliament was destined, in one short hour of convulsive strength, in one short hour of passing glory, to humble the pride and alarm the fears of England.
- Ardent pro-lifer Rick Santorum made one passing reference to "authenticity" as a litmus test for a conservative candidate, but if he was obliquely referring to Romney (and he was), you could be excused for missing the dig.
Adverb
(-)- One, pale as yonder waning moon, / With lips of lurid blue; / The other, rosy as the morn / When throned on ocean's wave, / It blushes o'er the world: / Yet both so passing wonderful!
- ‘I find it passing strange that convicts understand honest folk, but honest folk don't understand convicts.’
Usage notes
* This use is sometimes misconstrued as meaning "vaguely" or "slightly" (perhaps by confusion with such phrases as "passing fancy", under Adjective, above), leading to formations such as "more than passing clever" etc.Noun
- And since he did not see Louie by the folding door, Louie knew that in his former passings and repassings he could not have seen her either.
perfunctory
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- He did a perfunctory job cleaning his dad's car, finishing quickly but leaving a few spots still dirty.
- I caught the gist of what he was saying--which in effect was that he had found and captured this Galu, that she was his and that he defied anyone to question his right of possession. It appeared to me, as I afterward learned was the fact, that I was witnessing the most primitive of marriage ceremonies. The assembled members of the tribe looked on and listened in a sort of dull and perfunctory apathy, for the speaker was by far the mightiest of the clan.
p. 55,
- Alternatively it may mean that a perfunctory search is enough to ensure that a purchase is acceptable, so less search is carried out.
