Modifies a noun

• manner: Unfortunately, the U.S. Congress has passed 39 bills on Sudan before in the same perfunctory manner.

• way: You interact in perfunctory ways, never allowing your partner to step over the emotional line you've drawn.

• examination: Too often courts of law have denied the writ of the rule of law with only the most perfunctory examination.

• performance: This is not to say that they give perfunctory performances - far from it.

• fashion: To this end, some participants will have caring, empathetic treatment, while others are dealt with in a more perfunctory fashion.

• attempt: Some effort has been made to include questions for students to answer, but these are rather perfunctory attempts to test understanding.

Modifying Another Word

• somewhat: Landing, we went through the somewhat perfunctory customs check and out to get our ride to the Hilton.

• fairly: There have been attempts, albeit fairly perfunctory, to honor the dead in some way.

• rather: Some effort has been made to include questions for students to answer, but these are rather perfunctory attempts to test understanding.

• very: Another question is whether the Treasury is consulting Eddie George himself, in any more than a very perfunctory sense.

• not: He speaks in a deep-voiced monotone, but he is not perfunctory in his replies or self-evidently bored, as other players can be.

• relatively: My comments on the others are based on relatively perfunctory examinations of what is on offer.

Used with adjective complement

• become: As the same time the divination process itself seems to have become more perfunctory, as the performance became more important than the result.