complain
verb (used without object)
to express dissatisfaction, pain, uneasiness, censure, resentment, or grief; find fault.
were complaining
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past progressiveof complain.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.
Technical staffer Tarun Gogineni wrote on X in December 2022 that he knew artists were complaining about increased AI-generated competition, but viewed potential job losses as “acceptable economic disruption.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
Before the conflict, many Syrians were complaining about high unemployment, corruption and a lack of political freedom under President Bashar al-Assad, who succeeded his father, Hafez, after he died in 2000.
From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2025
By 2022, many critics on Reddit and elsewhere were complaining that Airbnb experiences were unreliable, and industry website Skift reported that Airbnb had stopped adding new experiences and reduced emphasis on them on its homepage.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2025
Her two sons joined the army after the Russians were forced out, and were complaining they were short of weapons, she said.
From New York Times ● May 10, 2024
You know what they were complaining about the most?
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
