Example sentences of "[vb past] [been] for [det] " in BNC.

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1 Most superior buildings also sustained their Palladian principles , but they became less formal : for example , the central salon , the grand reception room of the Palladian house ( Fig. 14 ) , lost some of its ceremonial identity and might even be occupied by a billiard table ; women were no longer debarred from the library , as they had been for much of the previous century .
2 Here , as he had been for much of the past week , Thomas was contentedly playing .
3 An older age group of superior tradesmen here and there — the public bar fraternity shunned the place , for this had been for many years the snob pub of Belgravia .
4 According to H. C. Robbins Landon , it was the Tristan und Isolde shortly before that , a production of swarming darkness and rare musical sensibility , that had been for many people one of the greatest of all their musical experiences .
5 There had been for many years various organizations to co-ordinate Nonconformist work in both political and religious fields and the oldest bodies dated back to the previous century .
6 The powerful states of the time normally were empires , and had been for many centuries , though a few shadowy forerunners of the nation state could be seen by 1500 .
7 He had been for many years an Examiner with the Joint Matriculation Board , and latterly Chief Examiner for the Cambridge Board .
8 Harrowby was an eminent politician , who had been for many years MP for Liverpool ; his scientific interests were in geography and statistics .
9 These limitation terms were incorporated in all contracts between seedsmen and farmers and had been for many years .
10 Aware that Madcap Agnew 's name was scarcely mentioned in the Hall , that the Lodge had been for many years a forbidden place , and that her father 's heart still quailed to reflect on the terrors he had suffered as a child , Louisa had not dared to let her reflections on this unhappy history reach far enough .
11 Mr Strachan 's acquaintance with the Library did not begin with his appointment as Chairman , since he had been for many years , as a historian and biographer , a reader in the Library 's Reading Rooms .
12 His first feelings of love had been for that gloriously liberated and beautiful tomboy .
13 It was in his experience difficult for most people to prove conclusively exactly where they had been for any forty-eight-hour period , members of the Metropolitan police force always excepted , and this was going to make his life very difficult .
14 For instance , the single person 's National Insurance retirement pension in 1990 is worth 26 per cent more than unemployment benefit , whereas back in 1972 they were paid at the same rate and had been for most of the period since 1948 .
15 The initial impetus came from the Managing Director of one of the largest of the Harris Tweed manufacturers — the son of a crofter and himself a fisherman in his early days The Association was , however , given its distinctive shape and its constitution by the first chairman , Rev. Ian Carmichael , a Gaelic-speaker from Lismore who was a minister in Stornoway at the time , and who had had considerable experience of welfare work in industry , and had been for some years vice convener of one of the largest local authorities in Scotland .
16 They had been for some ten minutes locked in a close embrace , the length of their bodies pressed together .
17 While there clearly was an ‘ objective ’ discontinuity of subject perspective between selective school mathematics and the practice of some segments , increasingly dominant within some countries , of university mathematics , and had been for some years , it again required interested actors , utilizing the climate of ‘ crisis ’ resulting from the campaign on teacher supply as a major resource , to enter various arenas in order to persuade others of the ‘ need ’ for change .
18 " Yes , " said Clara , beginning to understand the nature of her mother 's satisfaction ; the lack of telephone of Mrs Hanney had been for some years a subject for discourse in a vein of amazed contempt .
19 His interest in humanity now was stone dead , and probably had been for some time .
20 ‘ That you were having an affair — had been for some time . ’
21 According to Alcuin the oppression of the Church by the secular power had been for some time a feature of Northumbrian political and ecclesiastical life , but the problem now was that Eanbald was said to be accompanied on his journeys through Northumbria by a retinue more numerous than any which had attended on his predecessors and inclusive of low-born soldiers , and Alcuin affected to be at a loss as to why he needed so large a force .
22 At this moment the King , who had been for some time busily writing in his notebook , called out , ‘ Silence ! ’ and read out from his book , ‘ Rule Forty-Two .
23 I knew only that it was dark , and had been for some while .
24 He said it was broken , had been for some time , and that if I wanted a toilet I should go to the cafe upstairs .
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