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.
A few minutes later, her former stepfather's wife Jackie Barrett left the sandbar where they had been sunning themselves and followed Campbell.
From Time Magazine Archive
The facts: peripatetic Bill Pawley had been sunning himself in Miami at the time the Electoral Tribunal made up its mind on the Commies; the U.S.
From Time Magazine Archive
The whole town was swarming with workmen, hurrying out, and with the nurses who were quickly carrying the chrysalises from the place where they had been sunning themselves, inside the mound.
From Little Tom by Tille V.
Some fat robins had been sunning about in the school-yard at noon, and sparrows had been chirping and twittering on the fence-rails.
From Story of Waitstill Baxter by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
Just then a little lizard, that had been sunning itself in a niche in the adobe wall, started, disturbed by Jo's proximity, and ran swiftly over to another part of the wall.
From Out of the Triangle: a story of the Far East by Mary E. (Mary Ellen) Bamford
