owe
verb (used with object)
to be under obligation to pay or repay.
had been owing
-
past perfect progressiveof owe.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.
Lawrence Godfrey took a good, long look at a television shot of a nearby crowd, hustled out and found his man, collected the $10 that had been owing him for ten years.
From Time Magazine Archive
Half, at least, of his great success in life had been owing to his self-possession, which never verged on hardness or fused itself with its near relation, stolidity.
From Flames by Robert Smythe Hichens
But so it was, and it had been owing to these strange, untoward tastes that Commander Dupré and Claire had become friends.
From Studies in love and in terror by Marie Belloc Lowndes
She wondered if Erle’s decided nervousness and want of ease had been owing to her mother’s rather cool reception of him.
From Wee Wifie by Rosa Nouchette Carey
Our past tranquillity had been owing to the belief of his death.
From Edgar Huntly or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker by Charles Brockden Brown
