had been expending
- past perfect progressive of expend.
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.
They have learned — in a bold, new, public way — how much energy they had been expending and exhausting and wasting in the tortured art of hiding.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 24, 2018
So Mr. Colbert focused on the comedy and his performance, and Mr. Licht dealt with management issues that the host had been expending energy on: staffing, budgets, sales meetings, the works.
From New York Times ● Apr. 9, 2017
Mayor Walker meantime, had been expending his energies upon "drafting" a new police commissioner.
From Time Magazine Archive
That capital of forces which human thought had been expending in edifices, it henceforth expends in books.
From Notre-Dame De Paris by Hapgood, Isabel Florence
I should refuse him if he did; but I hated to feel that I had been expending so much friendship on a man whose soul could not soar beyond birth and fortune.
From A Romantic Young Lady by Grant, Robert
