Used to describe an action that was ongoing continuously in the past up until another past event interrupted it.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Already Irish, English, and French democrats had been fraternizing.
From William Pitt and the Great War by John Holland Rose
That Reid had been fraternizing with Swan Carlson, Mackenzie felt certain, drinking the night out with him 179 in his camp.
From The Flockmaster of Poison Creek by P. V. E. (Percy Van Eman) Ivory
Worse still, they themselves, and the beaten strikers with whom they had been fraternizing, got a black eye in the affair; and many an editorial column, many a pulpit, unctuously discoursed thereon.
From The Air Trust by George Allan England
