preserve
verb (used with object)
to keep alive or in existence; make lasting.
were preserving
-
past progressiveof preserve.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.
No one in the art world, he said, showed particular concern, including curators who he said thought they were preserving for public display items that might otherwise disappear into private collections.
From New York Times ● Apr. 19, 2023
These people may have had plans to move to a different service, simply wanted their own copy or were preserving what they had on Google before deleting it from the company’s servers.
From New York Times ● Dec. 31, 2022
“It almost looks like they were preserving the space for him,” he said.
From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2010
We were preserving Our Lady, and I was content— for the first time since I’d learned about my mother—to be doing what I was doing.
From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
It must have been in June, for Mrs. Harling and Ántonia were preserving cherries, when I stopped one morning to tell them that a dancing pavilion had come to town.
From My Ántonia by Cather, Willa Sibert
