had been bleaching

• past perfect progressive

  past perfect progressive

  Used to describe an action that was ongoing continuously in the past up until another past event interrupted it.

  of bleach.
  bleach

  verb (used with object)

  to make whiter or lighter in color, such as by exposure to sunlight or a chemical agent; remove the color from.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

had been bleaching

While she was once more boiling and washing the linen she had been bleaching all summer long, for which purpose she remained up all night, she would always be muttering to herself.

From The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 08 Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English. in Twenty Volumes by Various

How good he was! he who was as scornfully depreciative of his own merits as if the bones of another Mr. Clarke had been bleaching in some distant cave in imperishable evidence of his guilt.

From The Doctor's Wife by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

Related Words

• lighten