Example sentences of "[conj] had once " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | When it ended in the mid 1960s , to be replaced in quick succession by sociology , anthropology , and linguistic theory , it turned introspective in its defeat , wasting its energies on the grimly unavailing task of seeking , and never finding , a theoretical basis for what it did or had once done . |
| 2 | There were no signs anywhere of Wolski 's background , of the fact that he spoke Polish or had once been Jewish , or of the God that had been present at his birth but on whom he had turned his back before the godlessness in a death camp called Sobibor . |
| 3 | The point is that if anything of that degree of complexity were found on a planet , we should have no hesitation in concluding that life existed , or had once existed , on that planet . |
| 4 | Yet with its residual gentility , its variegated forest of a garden where we had practical botany lessons , and the original Victorian mansion building with its labyrinth of poky rooms and winding staircases , it must have seemed that the convent was an accidental inheritance , never really meant for us , and thereby reminding us that we had come into our own ; we had by right something more than had once been intended for us . |
| 5 | He had a grey fringe round back and sides , although a few wisps that had once been fair or ginger were combed over the top . |
| 6 | The solidarity and sense of community that had once been Ealing 's strength now began to work against it . |
| 7 | Drunk one day , driving her on his Harley , he slammed into a house that had once belonged to Jack London . |
| 8 | There was the weighted velvet curtain that had once hung in the Star Theatre , now fixed to a huge rod with rings so large that Frankie could slip them over his arms like bangles . |
| 9 | Standing in a corner of the half-landing was an old mirror with chipped edges : a tall narrow sheet of glass that had once been pinned to the inside of a wardrobe door . |
| 10 | Lorna gave him the intense , twinkling smile that had once agitated the hormones of millions in This Girl 's Army . |
| 11 | Hunched over or not , it was impossible not to be reminded of the sheer impact of his physical presence — the very same that had once reduced two drunken gentlemen to sobriety in the back of a car . |
| 12 | Holding my back straight and clutching the plaited strings that had once been reins , I felt as intrepid as Stark , as hardened as Lawrence , as much the explorer as Burckhardt . |
| 13 | Where were the classic murders that had once held the attention of the world ? |
| 14 | I gave up trying to resuscitate that fern that had once had such shiny green leaves and perky look , declared it dead , threw it out of the house and went to see my surgeon . |
| 15 | Once a fortnight on a Sunday afternoon the girls went to tea with Gran Bristow in the little house that had once been their home . |
| 16 | He did n't believe it up to the moment that he found himself outside a half-house that had once been graced by a classical loggia . |
| 17 | The shabby coat that had once been old Mr Jarman 's strained across his broad shoulders , the short sleeves exposing a good length of arm ; the hands looking bigger than ever . |
| 18 | The string that had once been fastened lightly round her toe had tightened during the years of marriage , slowly tightened into a leash . |
| 19 | From below his sternum to his waist , Quinn 's front was occupied by a flat wooden box that had once contained liqueur chocolates . |
| 20 | And somehow , in a setting that had once been rural , it seemed yet more dire . |
| 21 | ‘ I sha n't wait till Adam returns , ’ Lewis said in that manner that had once led his daughter to call him the Frog Footman , |
| 22 | A country that had once been central to itself was on the periphery : it needed to become central again . |
| 23 | I decided against looking into the tumbledown wooden hut that had once housed the coal hopper controls . |
| 24 | Inside the tabernacle grounds stood an X-shaped cross , and upon that hung a ragged figure that had once been a man . |
| 25 | But the sand was thinning : the bones of dead monks were drifting to the surface of the pit that had once been a graveyard , while the headstones sank slowly towards the bedrock . |
| 26 | Above , I saw where a hole in the tin roof had been repaired with a flattened-out biscuit tin that had once contained Huntley and Palmer 's ginger nuts . |
| 27 | He almost ran down the hall , through the kitchen and into the little utility room that had once been a scullery . |
| 28 | The smell of disinfectant was strongest in the little room that had once been his . |
| 29 | It was a sturdy affair that had once contained twelve bottles of South African sherry . |
| 30 | He could get items that had once been owned by this author or that author , and there was a market for these , particularly for letters . |