Example sentences of "she [vb past] been a [adj] [noun] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | In the 1920s , she 'd been a great beauty and a sharp dresser . |
| 2 | Dear God , she was nothing but skin and bone , and she 'd been a tiny slip of a thing to start with . |
| 3 | In real life she 'd been a poor shepherdess who lived in a dungeon and had asthma . |
| 4 | Meg realized she 'd been a complete fool . |
| 5 | She 'd even felt the odd pang of nostalgia for the old days when she 'd been a young wet-behind-the-ears singer , just beginning to make her way up the ladder . |
| 6 | On the few occasions she 'd spent holidays at home she 'd been a social outcast among her contemporaries . |
| 7 | It was n't IMP 's fault , or hers , that he had started at Jerez in third position , but she 'd been a convenient whipping-boy for his suspicions . |
| 8 | She had been a regular person once , but that had been before the voices started up in her head , before the dead woman got out of her rocking chair , before the preacherman reached into her mind and gave it a sharp twist … |
| 9 | In any case , even if she had been a skilled charmer it was not possible to allure somebody who slashed back at you like a master swordsman and drove the point in . |
| 10 | If she had been a religious person she would have put it down to retribution for her sins , but she had lost whatever faith she had had in her years as the Madam of Dublin 's most fashionable brothel . |
| 11 | She had been a battered baby , grew up in a succession of foster homes , and then married a man who regularly beat her up . |
| 12 | He held her against him , nursing her as though she had been a small child , while looking down into her face . |
| 13 | ‘ Gross exaggeration , ’ Fabia laughed , but could n't deny that she had been a great fan of the Czech composers , and still was . |
| 14 | ‘ She had been a lifelong friend of the Abrams , ’ Mr Burke said . |
| 15 | When she had been a tiny child , and Fenna had still been a small , manageable and undemanding dragon she had , often spoken of him , to her mother who had grinned , to her grandmother who had smiled , and to her schoolteachers and friends , who had laughed indulgently . |
| 16 | Her senior by fourteen years , she had been a splendid nursemaid and even after marriage , while rearing her own family , Edna had still managed to do part-time cleaning and a weekly wash in the Tremayne household . |
| 17 | Personally , I think it was a merciful release both for my aunt and for my Uncle Félix , seeing that she had been a helpless invalid for so long . |
| 18 | Just as she had been a conscientious dancer , she now became an equally conscientious needlewoman . |
| 19 | Still , she thought , bracing her shoulders , if she had been a real mother she would have had to endure many such problems with a teenage daughter . |
| 20 | She had been a major influence in my life , and helped me through the rough patches . |
| 21 | A case of gamekeeper turned poacher , given that she had been a fast-stream entrant to the Treasury , much of whose function it is to resist that sort of demand . ’ |
| 22 | She had been a loyal colleague for many years , respected by parents and children alike , and since the accident had proved a trusted friend and companion . |
| 23 | She had been a clerk-receptionist phone-answerer-teamaker and she had got the job through her uncle Bob who was as near to being a friend of Thomas Walby 's as it was possible to be . |
| 24 | Sad thing was she had been a noted dancer in her day . |
| 25 | She had been a good wife , too . |
| 26 | She had been a good companion ; she did not deserve this from him . |
| 27 | She had been a good woman . |
| 28 | Behavioural precursors of schizophrenia included a poor emotional rapport in the psychiatric interview , and parental observations that he or she had been a passive baby , with a short attention span in childhood , and often impolite behaviour , while school reports often noted that the child was isolated , uneasy about criticism , easily upset , and disturbed the class ( Parnas et al. , 1982 ) . |
| 29 | She had been a little brick , Doreen . |
| 30 | She had been a little waif then , in her Yorkshire homespun . |