We're not going to go through the motions and pay tribute to one another, and then furl up the flags and go our separate ways.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Opens Tribal Nations Conference

This suggests that he is likely to go through the motions of consulting the Popular Committees that nominally run his country before announcing a decision.

ECONOMIST: Libya and the bombed airliners | The

American K-12 education has an infinite capacity to absorb money, even to go through the motions of doing what the donor wants--so long as the outside funding lasts.

FORBES: Bill Gates' New Education Plan

Most have a go or at least go through the motions.

ECONOMIST: Lexington

This 10-minute film loop features an ordinary house filled with ordinary people slowly burning, the occupants not even noticing their own destruction as they go through the motions of living draped in thick ennui.

FORBES: When Postmodern Art Attacks Western Civilization

The two of them shift from distrust to desire to disappointment in other words, they go through all the motions of love except the making of it.

NEWYORKER: Un Coeur en Hiver

Perhaps the party leader has to go through the politically correct motions.

ECONOMIST: Bagehot