discover
verb (used with object)
to see, get knowledge of, learn of, find, or find out; gain sight or knowledge of (something previously unseen or unknown).
had been discovering
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past perfect progressiveof discover.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.
As an amateur archaeologist whose passion had been discovering Bronze Age stone carvings, Yerlan Zhagiparov had never been politically active.
From New York Times β Jan. 31, 2022
In recent years Leicester’s global claim to fame had been discovering the battle-scarred skeleton of a 15th-century monarch under a parking lot in 2012.
From Washington Times β Dec. 23, 2015
There was this beauty she had been discovering in the last few years, this mystery of love,—all that had been hidden from him.
From The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
Everywhere we had been discovering that in the pitch dark many could hardly be held in place.
From Indiscreet Letters From Peking Being the Notes of an Eye-Witness, Which Set Forth in Some Detail, from Day to Day, the Real Story of the Siege and Sack of a Distressed Capital in 1900βThe Year of Great Tribulation by B. L. (Bertram Lenox) Putnam Weale
In the last few years Mr. Britling, by the light of a variety of emotional excursions in other directions, had been discovering this.
From Mr. Britling Sees It Through by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
