noun
: a verb tense expressing action or state in or as if in the past:
a. : a verb tense expressive of time gone by (as wrote in “on arriving I wrote a letter”) — called also past absolute, past historic
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”) — called also past continuous, past descriptive