weed
noun
a valueless plant growing wild, especially one that grows on cultivated ground to the exclusion or injury of the desired crop.
had been weeding
-
past perfect progressiveof weed.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.
For 22 days a three-man council headed by General Abdel Hakim Amer, Egypt's top military man, had been weeding out undesirables among the 2,508 candidates who filed for the 350-man Parliament in next week's elections.
From Time Magazine Archive
Meantime Mrs Carbonel had turned to Widow Mole, who, after her first curtsey, had been weeding away diligently and coughing.
From The Carbonels by W. S. (Walter S.) Stacey
Every juvenile beet and carrot lay flat down, wilted and drooping, as if, like me, they had been weeding, instead of being weeded.
From The May Flower, and Miscellaneous Writings by Harriet Beecher Stowe
A woman, with a strong face and shrewd, brown eyes, rose from an onion bed she had been weeding to open the gate.
From Children of the Tenements by C. M. (Charles Mark) Relyea
The heat for several days had been equal to that of summer, so we had been weeding and watering the young plants in her garden.
From The Romance of the Canoness A Life-History by Paul Heyse
