Customary vs Perfunctory - What's the difference?
customary | perfunctory | Related terms |
A book containing laws and usages, or customs; a custumal.
Agreeing with, or established by, custom; established by common usage; conventional; habitual.
*
*:At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
Holding or held by custom; as, customary tenants; customary service or estate.
*1777 , Joseph Nicolson and Richard Burn, The history and antiquities of the counties of Westmorland and Cumberland
*:The tenants are chiefly customary and heriotable.
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 ,
Customary is a related term of perfunctory.
As adjectives the difference between customary and perfunctory
is that customary is agreeing with, or established by, custom; established by common usage; conventional; habitual 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 noun customary
is a book containing laws and usages, or customs; a custumal.customary
English
Noun
(customaries)Adjective
(en adjective)Quotations
* 1956 — , The City and the Stars , p 39 *: When two people met for the first time in Diaspar—or even for the hundredth—it was customary to spend an hour or so in an exchange or courtesies before getting down to business, if any.Synonyms
*Derived terms
* customarilyperfunctory
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.