Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Days later, the campaign was printing the slogan on lawn signs and using it on social media.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026
To see how the material behaved within the part as it was printing, researchers went to the Advanced Photon Source, an ultra-bright, high-energy synchrotron X-ray user facility at Argonne National Laboratory.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 22, 2024
Zimbabweans have a historic mistrust of the central bank, dating back to 2008, when it was printing 10tn Zimbabwe dollar notes while inflation had run out of control.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2024
Four hundred miles south of us, in New York, Ray Francis was printing shots that had the bold shadows we were striving for.
From New York Times ● Feb. 22, 2024
There was printing on them, in red letters.
From "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
