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Perfidious vs Perfunctory - What's the difference?

perfidious | perfunctory |

As adjectives the difference between perfidious and perfunctory

is that perfidious is of, pertaining to, or representing perfidy; disloyal to what should command one's fidelity or allegiance 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.

perfidious

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Of, pertaining to, or representing perfidy; disloyal to what should command one's fidelity or allegiance.
  • * 1610 , , act 2 scene 2
  • *:TRINCULO (speaking about ): By this light, a most perfidious and drunken / monster: when his god's asleep, he'll rob his bottle.
  • * 1851 , , Dr. Goldsmith's History of Rome (ed. William C. Taylor), ch. 26:
  • The perfidious Ricimer soon became dissatisfied with Anthe'mius, and raised the standard of revolt.
  • * 1905 , , John Knox and the Reformation , ch. 14:
  • [S]he knew Huntly for the ambitious traitor he was, a man peculiarly perfidious and self-seeking.
  • * 2005 June 21, , " Art: The Velocipede of Modernism," Time :
  • When the Nazis branded Feininger a "degenerate artist" in 1937, he left 54 paintings for safekeeping with a Bauhaus friend named Hermann Klumpp. After the war, and for the rest of Feininger's life, the perfidious Klumpp refused to give them back.

    Synonyms

    * (disloyal) disloyal, traitorous, treacherous, unfaithful

    Derived terms

    * perfidiously * perfidiousness

    perfunctory

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • 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.
  • He did a perfunctory job cleaning his dad's car, finishing quickly but leaving a few spots still dirty.
  • * 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter VIII
  • 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.
  • * 1992 , Peter Bowbrick, The Economics of Quality, Grades, and Brands , 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.

    Synonyms

    * (performed out of routine) automatic, cursory, dutiful, mechanical, obligatory, slipshod, token, unthinking

    Antonyms

    * thoughtful

    See also

    * pro forma