What's the difference between perfunctory and unthinking?

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.

Unthinking


Definition:

  • (a.) Not thinking; not heedful; thoughtless; inconsiderate; as, unthinking youth.
  • (a.) Not indicating thought or reflection; thoughtless.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) While the majority of EU member states, including the UK, do not have a direct interest in the CAR, or in taking action, the alternative is unthinkable.
  • (2) This deal also promotes the separation of the single market and single currency – a British objective for many years that would have been unthinkable in the Maastricht era.
  • (3) For example, the old-school-tie brigade viewed the prospect of an alliance with the Soviet Union to confront Hitler as almost unthinkable at one time, but in due course had to stomach it.
  • (4) It’s unthinkable that they wouldn’t do that.” The Saw ride at Thorpe Park in Surrey and the Dragon’s Fury and Rattlesnake rollercoasters at Chessington World of Adventures, also in Surrey, have also been shut down by Merlin Entertainments, which owns all three parks.
  • (5) If the Senate refuses to pass a strengthened version of the USA Freedom Act this summer, reformers should consider what 24 hours ago was unthinkable: abandon the bill and force Section 215 of the Patriot Act to expire once and for all in 2015.
  • (6) Kipling deliberately concealed something of himself, but did not seek to conceal the truth about the nature of imperial power; Wodehouse exposed himself, and thereby inadvertently exposed something of the double standards of the system of power in which he unthinkingly believed.
  • (7) The notion of an unconnected unknown like him winning an equivalent prize in Spain was, he said, unthinkable.
  • (8) There have even been signs that Löw is becoming slightly restless, having started to criticise players in public, something that would have been unthinkable a few years back.
  • (9) If an agreement were to materialise – which would have been unthinkable a month ago – it could produce a solid unity government able to take the necessary bold decisions to crack down on the militias and renew major public infrastructure projects.
  • (10) I don't mean in the sense that the taxpayer would have to pick up the pieces if it went under, but in the sense that the social networking service has achieved a position of such dominance in the online ecosystem that its eclipse is unthinkable.
  • (11) Seduced into believing they could be a big influencer in Platini’s new Fifa, they rushed unthinkingly to back him.
  • (12) So this unthinking assumption that an independent Catalonia would be kept out [of the EU] is false.
  • (13) Here's a sample: Having watched this fantastically unthinking and heavy-handed adaptation, the opening gala of this year's Cannes festival, I feel the only way to make it less subtle would be to let Michael Bay direct it.
  • (14) I talked to a couple of heads and the atmosphere was: you've done the unthinkable.
  • (15) It should not be a shock he’s not going to be a deficit hawk.” Trump has no intention of shrinking the federal government, Sykes added, and his praise of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, would have been unthinkable to cold warrior Reagan.
  • (16) Strong stuff Adair Turner is not a fan of legislating for a Glass-Steagall approach to breaking up the banks, but the FSA chairman has been voicing previously unthinkable thoughts.
  • (17) Moody's has warned that a US default is unlikely, but no longer unthinkable, and put America's credit rating on negative watch .
  • (18) It is also unthinking because it takes little account of the pending impact of the falling terms of trade and the sluggish domestic economy, which is being held back by chronic weakness in consumer sentiment and fickle business conditions.
  • (19) To lose one director general was catastrophic; to make a second wrong appointment, unthinkable.
  • (20) For many who already have one condition, it is unthinkable to have both.

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