strangle
verb (used with object)
to kill by squeezing the throat in order to compress the windpipe and prevent the intake of air, as with the hands or a tightly drawn cord.
had been strangling
-
past perfect progressiveof strangle.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.
After vomiting for some time, I felt the grip around my throat loosen, as if whatever had been strangling me had been somewhere in the vomit.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
I wriggled and struggled with the cumbersome burden that had been strangling the flickering life in me.
From My Brave and Gallant Gentleman A Romance of British Columbia by Robert Watson
Even Patsy, big and sloppy and bearing with him stale kitchen odors, limped stolidly in the rear beside Slim, who looked guilty as though he had been strangling somebody's favorite cat.
From The Flying U's Last Stand by B. M. Bower
Any conclusion more monstrous, more directly opposed to every natural instinct, can hardly be conceived, but the man had been strangling natural instincts for fifty years.
From Lying Prophets by Eden Phillpotts
Then it began to cough and to bring up pieces of the loosened membrane that had been strangling it.
From Preventable Diseases by Woods Hutchinson
