Eke

• POS: Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

Eke, v. t. [AS. ēkan, \'dfkan; akin to OFries, āka, OS. kian, OHG. ouhhōn to add, Icel. auka to increase, Sw. öka, Dan. öge, Goth. aukan, L. augere, Skr. jas strength, ugra mighty, and probably to English wax, v. i. Cf. Augment, Nickname.].

 To increase; to add to; to augment; -- now commonly used with out, the notion conveyed being to add to, or piece out by a laborious, inferior, or scanty addition; as, to eke out a scanty supply of one kind with some other.  Spenser.  [1913 Webster]
"He eked out by his wits an income of barely fifty pounds."  [1913 Webster]

Eke, adv. [AS. eác; akin to OFries. ák, OS. k, D. ok, OHG. ouh, G. auch, Icel. auk, Sw. och and, Dan. og, Goth. auk for, but. Prob. from the preceding verb.].

 In addition; also; likewise.  [1913 Webster]
" Eke serves less to unite than to render prominent a subjoined more important sentence or notion."  M'84tzner.  [1913 Webster]
"'T will be prodigious hard to prove
That this is eke the throne of love."  [1913 Webster]
"A trainband captain eke was he
Of famous London town."  [1913 Webster]

Eke, n. 

 An addition.  [1913 Webster]
"Clumsy ekes that may well be spared."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Eke, v.tr.

Idiom

eke out
1 (foll. by with, by) supplement; make the best use of (defective means etc.).
2 contrive to make (a livelihood) or support (an existence).

Etymology

OE eacan, rel. to L augere increase