Used to express a completed action that took place before another specific past action occurred.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They had corked over their whole faces, so there wasn’t a fat slab of clown red lip among them, nor a too-white eye, nor a grin, nor a shuck.
From New York Times ● Nov. 11, 2020
After a time all the house was alarmed by loud explosions and violent screaming in the kitchen, the cook had corked the bottles before she boiled them, and of course they exploded.
From Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville by Mary Somerville
Four years of war had corked the bottle of gayety.
From Poor Man's Rock by Frank Tenney Johnson
