alternate
verb (used without object)
to interchange repeatedly and regularly with one another in time or place; rotate (usually followed bywith ).
had been alternating
-
past perfect progressiveof alternate.past perfect progressive
Used to describe an action that was ongoing continuously in the past up until another past event interrupted it.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Chelsea Hightower told Fox News in an interview that she and her husband Matt Hightower had been alternating nights hiding the three elves – one for each of their children – around the home.
From Fox News ● Dec. 14, 2020
Susan, young, inexperienced, dazed; now too despondent, now too hopeful; now too gentle and again too infuriated—Susan had been alternating between inertia and purposeless struggle.
From Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise by David Graham Phillips
Gethryn's friends and acquaintances, who had been alternating between 'Ginger'—Gethryn's hair being inclined to redness—and 'Sneg', a name which utterly baffles the philologist, had welcomed the new name warmly, and it had stuck ever since.
From A Prefect's Uncle by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse
This was midday of the Friday and ever since that dinner-party at the Carruthers' on the Monday night she had been alternating between wild hopes and arguments of prudence.
From Witness for the Defense by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
