tickle
verb (used with object)
to touch or stroke lightly with the fingers, a feather, etc., so as to excite a tingling or itching sensation in; titillate.
had been tickling
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past perfect progressiveof tickle.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.
Instinctively, without reckoning the consequences of what she was doing, she came out with the charges that had been tickling her tongue for years!
From Mayflower (Flor de mayo) A Tale of the Valencian Seashore by Arthur Livingston
She threw herself backwards on that couch in your room and laughed and laughed and laughed as if I had been tickling her, and she drummed on the floor with the heels of her shoes.
From The Arrow of Gold A Story Between Two Notes by Joseph Conrad
I presume it had been tickling, and she had done this with a finger still wet with ink, so that there was a smear on her face.
From A Book of Ghosts by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
Opposite him, against the hand-rails, some young fellows went into contortions, as if somebody had been tickling them.
From His Masterpiece by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
But after a while, a fly, which had been tickling Brutus's nose, grew so impertinent that the poor dog had to punish him with his paw.
From John of the Woods by Abbie Farwell Brown
