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.
While Tremaine, Duncan and Quinn were nailing down the theoretical case for the Kuiper belt, Jewitt and Jane X. Luu, then his student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, began looking for hard evidence.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 15, 2014
He would rather have that than flabby silence, as if he were nailing into dry-rot.
From Mary Anerley : a Yorkshire Tale by Blackmore, R. D. (Richard Doddridge)
White waves splashed on the clay, but the Irtysh itself made no roar or din, but gave forth a strange sound as though someone were nailing up a coffin under the water….
From Letters of Anton Chekhov by Garnett, Constance
Carpenters were lowered over the side, and were nailing pieces of wood over the shot-holes near the water-line.
From When London Burned : a Story of Restoration Times and the Great Fire by Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
At last the doctor came on them suddenly, just as they were nailing him up again in his box.
From Bouvard and Pécuchet A Tragi-comic Novel of Bourgeois Life by Flaubert, Gustave
