excommunicate
verb (used with object)
to cut off from communion with a church or exclude from the sacraments of a church by ecclesiastical sentence.
were excommunicating
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past progressiveof excommunicate.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.
The legate and the bishops were excommunicating the plunderers of churches, but the plunderers laughed at their anathemas.
From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 05 (From Charlemagne to Frederick Barbarossa) by Charles F. (Charles Francis) Horne
And the Pope and the Church in the East and at home were excommunicating the Saxons on that account, and they did not pay any attention or heed unto that, &c.
From An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 by Mary Frances Cusack
