SUPERFICIAL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Superficial

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/sˌupərfˈɪʃəl/ Listen

adjective

Superficial adj.

Of or pertaining to the superficies, or surface; lying on the surface; shallow; not deep; as, a superficial color; a superficial covering; superficial measure or contents; superficial tillage.

Reaching or comprehending only what is obvious or apparent; not deep or profound; shallow; said especially in respect to study, learning, and the like; as, a superficial scholar; superficial knowledge. "This superficial tale Is but a preface of her worthy praise." "He is a presumptuous and superficial writer." "That superficial judgment, which happens to be right without deserving to be so."

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Etymology of 'Superficial'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Superficial" Quotes from Famous Books

... the Mount, and most of the Apocalypse, every syllable by heart, and having always a way of thinking with; myself what words meant, it was not possible for me, even in the foolishest times of youth, to write entirely superficial or formal English, and the affectation of trying to write like Hooker or George Herbert was the most innocent I ...

— Stories of Authors, British and American • Edwin Watts Chubb

... our best to make them see in Italy their friend and liberator.... It is evident and it leaps to the eyes of all how delicate and important is the moment of this first contact. Nothing more than a superficial knowledge of the circumstances is needed for the officer to understand that in all his official and personal acts he must behave in such a manner that the population, which is primitive and simple and therefore all the more susceptible to suggestions, ...

— The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2 • Henry Baerlein

... more fully than the writer the utter absence of literary merit in these Letters. He does not deprecate nor seek to disarm criticism; he only asks that his sketches be taken for what they profess and strive to be, and for nothing else. That they are superficial, their title proclaims; that they were hurriedly written, with no thought of style nor of enduring interest, all whom they are likely to interest or to reach must already know. A journalist traveling in foreign lands, especially those which have been once ...

— Glances at Europe - In a Series of Letters from Great Britain, France, Italy, - Switzerland, &c. During the Summer of 1851. • Horace Greeley

... alleged stigma of Puritanism. Could Virginia maintain her claim to a Cavalier ancestry instead of failing on even a superficial scrutiny, the contrast attempted to be drawn between Puritan and Cavalier is based on a fallacy. When these colonies were established, the distinction was a political one as clearly as the succeeding divisions ...

— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 1, July, 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... is effected by the liquefaction of the outer surface of the cellulose walls, and by the subsequent setting hard of the liquefied matter. This curious process probably takes place, not for the sake of the attachment of the radicles to superficial objects, but in order that the hairs may be brought into the closest contact with the particles in the soil, by which means they can absorb the layer of water surrounding them, together with any ...

— The Power of Movement in Plants • Charles Darwin

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