Perfunctory vs Exiguous - What's the difference?
perfunctory | exiguous |
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 ,
scanty; meager
* 1889 — ch XIII
* 1912 — ch VII
* 1998 — Michael Ignatieff, Rebirth of a Nation: An Anatomy of Russia . New Statesman, Feb 6.
* 2001 — Terence Brown, The Life of W. B. Yeats: A Critical Biography .
* 2012 — Rodger Cohen, Scottexalonia Rising, New York Times, Nov. 26., Op. Ed.
As adjectives the difference between perfunctory and exiguous
is that 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 while exiguous is scanty; meager.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.
Synonyms
* (performed out of routine) automatic, cursory, dutiful, mechanical, obligatory, slipshod, token, unthinkingAntonyms
* thoughtfulSee also
* pro formaexiguous
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- The herdboy in the broom, already musical in the days of Father Chaucer, startles (and perhaps pains) the lark with this exiguous pipe.
- The path on which I then planted my feet was quite unprecedentedly narrow. I had never had to walk along a thoroughfare so exiguous .
- They are entering the market, setting up stalls on snowy streets, moonlighting to supplement exiguous incomes.
- Among the pressures provoking these distresses were a father's financial inadequacy and a growing awareness that, by finding employment himself, he could ameliorate the family's exiguous circumstances.
- National politics, as President François Hollande of France is only the latest to discover, is often no more than tweaking at the margins in the exiguous political space left by markets and other global forces.