had been wallowing

• past perfect progressive

  past perfect progressive

  Used to describe an action that was ongoing continuously in the past up until another past event interrupted it.

  of wallow.
  wallow

  verb (used without object)

  to roll about or lie in water, snow, mud, dust, or the like, as for refreshment.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

had been wallowing

A former Biden Cabinet secretary, state attorney general and longtime congressman from Los Angeles, Becerra had been wallowing in the low single-digits in public opinion polls less than three months ago.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026

But our uncle, who had been wallowing in his misfortune for so long after losing his farm up north, isn’t wallowing anymore.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Before we got half way to the prison, there was a very heavy shower of rain, so that by the time we arrived there we looked as if we had been wallowing in the mud.

From A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, 2nd ed. Late A Surgeon On Board An American Privateer, Who Was Captured At Sea By The British, In May, Eighteen Hundred And Thirteen, And Was Confined First, At Melville Island, Halifax, Then At Chatham, In England ... And Last, At Dartmoor Prison. Interspersed With Observations, Anecdotes And Remarks, Tending To Illustrate The Moral And Political Characters Of Three Nations. To Which Is Added, A Correct Engraving Of Dartmoor Prison, Representing The Massacre Of American Prisoners, Written By Himself. by Benjamin Waterhouse

The regulars suffered much more than we did, for they had no rackets, and had been wallowing along in the deep snow.

From Ben Comee A Tale of Rogers's Rangers, 1758-59 by M. J. (Michael Joseph) Canavan

But it was no water, but a thick, dark red mud, which was nearly boiling, and in which buffaloes had been wallowing very shortly before.

From The Backwoodsman or, Life on the Indian Frontier by Various

Related Words

• flounder
• lurch
• totter