putter
verb (used without object)
to busy or occupy oneself in a leisurely, casual, or ineffective manner.
had been puttering
-
past perfect progressiveof putter.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.
“Marigold’s practicing oboe”—Cady flicked an elbow toward an upstairs window, from which faint, stilted notes of music had been puttering for the last several minutes—“but I don’t know about Zane and Will.”
From "A Tangle of Knots" by Lisa Graff
The engine was out on the ground; he had been puttering with it for two days.
From "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury
And, of course, anybody who'd taken that seriously and had been puttering around on a device to make private conversations on a party-line telephone possible, and almost had the trick.
From Sam, This is You by Murray Leinster
And now grandmother, who had been puttering about, waiting upon her guests, noticed that something was wrong.
From Doctor Jones' Picnic by S. E. (Samuel E.) Chapman
Anne and her own father had joined the family eight years ago, in the same year that the Strickland Patent Fire Extinguisher, over which the doctor had been puttering for years, had been sold.
From Sisters by Kathleen Thompson Norris
