What's the difference between obligatory and perfunctory?

Obligatory


Definition:

  • (a.) Binding in law or conscience; imposing duty or obligation; requiring performance or forbearance of some act; -- often followed by on or upon; as, obedience is obligatory on a soldier.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It is important to note that the proposed mechanism is not obligatory for androgen or other steroid hormone action.
  • (2) However, besides these obligatory alterations a high inter- and intraindividual variability of structural aspects is found in MS lesions.
  • (3) The presence of the other islet cell-types may be obligatory for these appropriate responses.
  • (4) From the derived cell flux in these compartments we suggest that 1) many more pre-B cells are produced than needed by the peripheral B cell pool; 2) if TdT is an obligatory stage in B cell genesis, there must be at least two cell cycles in the pre-B cell compartment; 3) if it is not, the TdT+ stage may be bypassed, with HIS24+TdT-Ig- cells perhaps feeding directly into the pre-B cell compartment.
  • (5) Neither cytochrome a nor cytochrome c appears to be an obligatory intermediate in cyanide-sensitive nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide oxidation in B. subtilis.
  • (6) Thus, the results of this study indicate that retinal is an obligatory intermediate in the hepatic production of retinoic acid from retinol and that cytosolic and microsomal retinol dehydrogenases play a key role in this process.
  • (7) Thus, even though LPS is a potent inducer of IFN-beta in murine macrophages, class I IFN expression may not be an obligatory intermediate event in the LPS-driven activation of ISRE binding activity.
  • (8) The four hosts (Mollusc -- Crustacean -- Odonat -- Amphibian) are obligatory in the life cycle for it is impossible to infect the Insects directly with the cecariae or the frog (tadpoles as well as adults) with the mesocercariae.
  • (9) The synergistic actions of E2 and either AA, the obligatory precursor of PGF2 alpha, or A23187, an enhancer of AA release from phospholipid stores, point to a stimulatory effect of E2 on prostaglandin synthase activity.
  • (10) No wt-1 expression was detected at any stage of tooth development showing that wt-1 is not obligatory for regulation of Egr-1 expression.
  • (11) These findings show that class switch by deletion of DNA regions in mature plasma cells is not obligatory for the secretion of immunoglobulin classes other than IgM.
  • (12) Serotonin plays an obligatory role in the initiation and expression of leech feeding behavior by its differential modulation of central neuronal networks and peripheral glands and muscles.
  • (13) However, in spite of these similarities, they differentially stimulate estrogenic responses that were previously thought to be interrelated and obligatory for full estrogenic action.
  • (14) These results, together with data from the native proteins, are consistent with obligatory 1-electron transfer between dehydrogenase and ETF possibly involving the exposed dimethylbenzene edge of ETF.
  • (15) Although Mg2+ is absolutely required for activation of adenylate cyclase by the GTP analogue guanosine 5'-[beta gamma-imido]triphosphate (p[NH]ppG), it is not obligatory for p[NH]ppG-stimulated ADP-ribosylation by cholera toxin.
  • (16) This suggests that normally the midline floor plate cells do provide guidance cues, but that these cues are not obligatory.
  • (17) The protein supply recommended for a certain age group should not be obligatory for the individual child.
  • (18) The results strongly suggest that the obligatory antigen processing event required for helper T cell recognition of alloantigen is simply the insertion of the alloantigen into the same membrane bilayer as the syngeneic Ia restricting element.
  • (19) This new function is derived by assuming that all chromosome arms except the short arms of acrocentric chromosomes hav an obligatory chiasma, and that the remaining chiasmata are distributed at random; assumptions which may correspond reasonably well to reality.
  • (20) Its somewhat unique features have attracted widespread interest both nationally and internationally and may be seen as part of an international movement towards obligatory CME in Western Medicine.

Perfunctory


Definition:

  • (a.) Done merely to get rid of a duty; performed mechanically and as a thing of rote; done in a careless and superficial manner; characterized by indifference; as, perfunctory admonitions.
  • (a.) Hence: Mechanical; indifferent; listless; careless.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The apparent lack of "anything to do" can discourage physicians from attempting anything more than perfunctory management of these cases.
  • (2) Refugees scramble for ways into Europe as Hungary seals borders Read more Habbal was one of at least 16 applicants to be rejected on Tuesday, and he claimed that each person was turned down in a maximum 20 minutes, after a series of perfunctory questions about their country of origin and route to Hungary.
  • (3) From the peak of potential perfection you descend down through "going to the toilet with the door open", past "perfunctory sex" and into "cold, dead stares across the breakfast table".
  • (4) The visit though will remain perfunctory, reflecting the troubled relationship.
  • (5) Instead it pushed through Lord Mandelson's wrong-headed digital economy bill, which only got its perfunctory Commons second reading yesterday, as well as the unavoidable budget resolutions.
  • (6) Social care is in crisis, leaving half a million frail old people with no care at all, while others get notoriously perfunctory 15-minute home visits or often squalid residential care.
  • (7) You could never accuse Frank Lowy of not caring enough about Australian football, but in his press conference announcing Postecoglou as coach there was a warmth and an avuncularity that had been missing in his more perfunctory public interactions with Osieck, Verbeek and even Hiddink.
  • (8) In a brilliant coincidence, he was also there to collect them all, rewarding all the fans who voted on social media with a fairly perfunctory performance of What Do You Mean?
  • (9) The process for deciding that the war was legal is described as “perfunctory” by the inquiry, while “no formal record was made of that decision, and the precise grounds on which it was made remains unclear”.
  • (10) These were the days when, other than perfunctory call-ups by prison staff, there was little focus on the motivations behind so-called offending behaviour.
  • (11) "The North's film-makers are just doing perfunctory work.
  • (12) Nursing home physicians are often unprepared to make psychiatric diagnoses, and a perfunctory annual psychiatric evaluation is insufficient to manage the complex depression syndromes of nursing home residents.
  • (13) If this could be attained, the hours in a hospital on rounds or at lectures would be better spent and ultimately, the speaker, too, would derive more satisfaction from his work if he were rewarded with stimulating questions from an appreciative audience instead of the perfunctory applause of somnolent, noncomprehending colleagues, driven almost to distraction by unending cacolalia complicated by lightning speed and rank inaudibility.
  • (14) Savile was given only a "perfunctory" interview, conducted on his terms at Stoke Mandeville ("not good practice") and with a friend present, about whose status officers did not inquire.
  • (15) All the approaches to Baghdad are defended by a mix of state security forces and Shia militiamen, most of whom have had several perfunctory days of training before being dispatched to the frontline.
  • (16) He's saying that the EIB is "part of the Brussels racket"; that BA was a major recipient of the bank's soft loans because it tried to steer Britain into the euro (must have been a bad job); that "everyone knows" that Britain is in a worse economic state than everyone else (oddly enough he cites Brussels as a source) and that our "wooden and perfunctory" PM is "pathologically incapable" of apologising for his mistakes.
  • (17) The inquiry also heard how Dorrell thought the framework for the fledgling PCC, which was set up in 1991, was "vague", "perfunctory" and lacking in any "real sanctions".
  • (18) The news is heartbreaking for the families involved and it will be scarcely believable for these hospitals and GPs who are doing their best to deliver services despite the neglect of the government.” He said that Hunt’s statement to MPs last July was “perfunctory, complacent and evasive, failing to reveal any of the catastrophic detail of how 500,000 pieces of correspondence including test and screening results and pathways following hospital treatment, had failed to be delivered and were in fact languishing unopened in a warehouse”.
  • (19) There’s a terrific documentary about one such case, the Detroit band Death whose sole album was released in a perfunctory edition in, I believe, 1975 and disappeared until a copy of it was digitised and made public on the internet.
  • (20) Most important, the history and physical examination are often perfunctory and the patient undergoes a number of contrast and imaging studies, endoscopic procedures, and laboratory investigations which may still be non-diagnostic.