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.
Oliver also wrote that Bankman-Fried “insisted that he had walled himself off from trading and risk management.”
From Slate ● Oct. 31, 2023
Around 9:45 a.m. on Friday morning, the creaky metal awning, that for almost a year had walled off moviegoers from the Angelika Film Center on Houston Street, rolled up with a lurch.
From New York Times ● Mar. 7, 2021
Carlos Franqui, who owns Floratorium, said he had walled the tables off with birch-trunk fences to give them a rustic feel that he describes as “a barricade that doesn’t look like a barricade.”
From New York Times ● Jul. 9, 2020
She had walled off the room with a whiteboard and plastered the countertops with Post-its that she intended to fill in as she continued work on the project.
From The New Yorker ● Feb. 8, 2019
He secretly summoned the masons and one of them revealed that he had walled up the bag in some bedroom because it bothered him in his work.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
