groan
noun
a low, mournful sound uttered in pain or grief.
had been groaning
-
past perfect progressiveof groan.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.
I then distinctly viewed thousands of Black Men, who had been groaning under the rod of oppression, starting up in all the transport of renovated life, and shouting aloud "We are free!"
From Bibliomania; or Book-Madness A Bibliographical Romance by Thomas Frognall Dibdin
Half-an-hour before I had been groaning over my lot.
From Kilgorman A Story of Ireland in 1798 by Talbot Baines Reed
Yet the accumulated wrongs under which the nation had been groaning during the reign of his predecessors, were to be avenged in his person,—innocent, heroic sufferer that he was.
From Ernest Linwood or, The Inner Life of the Author by Caroline Lee Hentz
Every one looked after him, but no one smiled or said a word, and the inquisitive postilion Antipka reported next morning in the kitchen that the dumb man had been groaning all night.
From Stories by Foreign Authors: Russian by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
All this time Nannie, who still lay motionless, had been groaning in what was evidently genuine pain.
From A Duel by Richard Marsh
