敷衍:do something or say something to make someone believes that something has been done but in fact it hasn't.
When someone has to do something but he doesn't want to do it, he may 敷衍 this thing.
for example, you mom asks you to clean your room, but you don't want to do that, but if you don't do, your mom will kick your ass. So you 敷衍 ------- you do clean your room but you don't treat the clean-room thing serious. In english, 敷衍 means to do something perfunctory.
a dialog between you and your mom:
- "去把你的房间打扫一下。"
- “好,我马上去。”
- “妈,我打扫完了。”
- “你看地也没扫干净,桌子上的灰尘也没有擦,不要敷衍了事,要认真打扫!”
another example,
- "小王,去问问小张把工作做完了没有。"
- “我去问了,他只是敷衍了我几句,但却没有给我看他的工作成果,我觉得他没有做完。”
“敷衍了我几句”: when 小王 asked 小张 if he had finished his job, 小张 said something to make 小王 believed that he had finished his job ----- but 小张 didn't show anything to 小王, so now 小王 believes that 小张 didn't finish his job, he just 用话敷衍.