Then some representatives gathered on the floor of the House to engage in perfunctory, time-killing debate, where Democrats and Republicans yielded time to one another so their squabbling would have a cordial veneer.
But at bottom Johnson seems more interested in slaying the ghosts of totalitarianism than in Bonaparte himself -- there are frequent gratuitous references to Nazis and Communists -- and this makes the treatment feel rather perfunctory at times.
Hurdle's words, which must have seemed perfunctory at the time, ended up prophetic.
Ms. Weingarten called for a new collaboration between schools and unions that would replace this "perfunctory waste of time".
Although Mr. Meredith's writing style is more perfunctory than last time, he conveys the delicate manipulations that led to the Anglo-Boer War.
Plot developments like this one can at times seem perfunctory.
The "audience" might be brief and perfunctory but at other times it will last a couple of hours and alcohol will be served.
My best guess: perhaps Mr. Biden can be credited with what in baseball statistics would be termed a "hold": something a bit shy of either a win or a save and which will probably seem perfunctory with the passage of time, but which might have done his team a bit of good.
Rousey did take a moment to acknowledge her loss to Holm, but it felt rushed and perfunctory: "It's the first time I'm talking to my fans since I lost to Holly Holm, in November, which, by the way, was a fight Holly deserved to win," she blurted out awkwardly.
There are also perfunctory references to the changin' times of Dublin in 1964.
Most of the time, the meeting is perfunctory: a quick review of the TV basics, like the standard practice of having five commercials a quarter.
