trace
noun
a surviving mark, sign, or evidence of the former existence, influence, or action of some agent or event; vestige.
had been tracing
-
past perfect progressiveof trace.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.
The FBI reached out almost a decade later after learning I had been tracing our family history for a book I was writing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
By the time I read Arthaud, I had been tracing this history in colonial-era and medical archival sources in Europe, North America, the Caribbean, and South America for years.
From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2023
Since then, it said it had been tracing the arms, checking with governments and suppliers.
From Reuters ● May 23, 2022
Linda pointed out that for decades a man named Brice McAdoo Clagett — a lawyer who died in 2008 — had been tracing the Clagett lineage.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 10, 2020
A small trunk also stood in this corner, and raising the lid Marsh discovered a large quantity of the five dollar bills he had been tracing over the country for the last two years.
From The Sheridan Road Mystery by Thorne, Mabel
