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.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offense.
From Time Magazine Archive
As Robert Frost once put it: Before I built a wall I'd asked to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offense.
From Time Magazine Archive
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence.
From North of Boston by Robert Frost
Titus was walling against a wall; turning upon the Jews that same thing which they had reared against him.
From The City of Delight A Love Drama of the Siege and Fall of Jerusalem by Frank X. Leyendecker
Monsieur and Madame de Merret were silent all the time while Gorenflot was walling up the door.
From La Grande Breteche by Ellen Marriage
