(Roman Catholic Church) an official in charge of an ecclesiastical province acting under the superior general of a religious order; "the general of the Jesuits receives monthly reports from the provincials"
characteristic of the provinces or their people; "deeply provincial and conformist"; "in that well-educated company I felt uncomfortably provincial"; "narrow provincial attitudes"
of or associated with a province; "provincial government"
deficient in originality or creativity; lacking powers of invention; "a sterile ideology lacking in originality"; "unimaginative development of a musical theme"; "uninspired writing"
limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent; "a little dining room"; "a little house"; "a small car"; "a little (or small) group"
have fine or very small constituent particles; "a small misty rain"
lacking vitality or spirit; lifeless; "a technically perfect but arid performance of the sonata"; "a desiccate romance"; "a prissy and emotionless creature...settles into a mold of desiccated snobbery"-C.J.Rolo
lacking sufficient water or rainfall; "an arid climate"; "a waterless well"; "miles of waterless country to cross"
being or affecting or concerned with a surface; not deep or penetrating emotionally or intellectually; "superficial similarities"; "a superficial mind"; "his thinking was superficial and fuzzy"; "superficial knowledge"; "the superficial report didn't give the true picture"; "only superficial differences"
of little substance or significance; "a few superficial editorial changes"; "only trivial objections"
relating to a surface; "superficial measurements"; "the superficial area of the wall"
a constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed
characterized by or causing or expressing sadness; "growing more melancholy every hour"; "her melancholic smile"; "we acquainted him with the melancholy truth"
excessively conventional and unimaginative and hence dull; "why is the middle class so stodgy, so utterly without a sense of humor?"; "a stodgy dinner party"
heavy and starchy and hard to digest; "stodgy food"; "a stodgy pudding served up when everyone was already full"
marked by immorality; deviating from what is considered right or proper or good; "depraved criminals"; "a perverted sense of loyalty"; "the reprobate conduct of a gambling aristocrat"