leaf
noun
one of the expanded, usually green organs borne by the stem of a plant.
was leafing
-
past progressiveof leaf.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
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.
"As I was leafing through the manuscript, the poem struck me as an odd version of Sonnet 116," the university researcher explained.
From BBC ● Mar. 4, 2025
The filmmaker was leafing through a newspaper while writing “Batman Begins” and came across a photo of Murphy from “28 Days Later.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 2, 2024
There was a moment, before around 2010, when Istanbul felt especially hip, at least to those of us whose main engagement was leafing through the weekend supplements at a remove of a thousand miles.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 2, 2018
One day, he was leafing through abstracts of recent scientific papers when a finding popped out at him.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 18, 2016
The old man, meanwhile, was leafing through the book, without seeming to want to return it at all.
From "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho
