Function: noun
Date: 1813
: a verb tense expressing action or state in or as if in the past: a : a verb tense expressive of elapsed time (as wrote in “ on arriving I wrote a letter ” ) b : a verb tense expressing action or state in progress or continuance or habitually done or customarily occurring at a past time (as was writing in “ I was writing while he dictated ” or loved in “ their sons loved fishing ” )