eke

1 of 2

adverb

ˈēk 

archaic

: also

eke

2 of 2

verb

eked; eking

transitive verb

1

archaic : increase, lengthen

2

: to get with great difficulty

—usually used with out

eke out a living

Synonyms

Verb

• scrape (up or together)
• scrounge
• squeeze
• wrest
• wring

Examples of eke in a Sentence

Verb

eked out a living from the family's small farm

Recent Examples on the Web

Verb

To stretch out the transition costs, the Coast Guard focused on eking every possible hour out of their fleet of 90 ancient Airbus MH-65E Dolphin helicopters, buying time to gradually refresh and expand their existing fleet of big MH-60T choppers. —Craig Hooper, Forbes, 15 Dec. 2024

Next up, on Saturday for the gold medal: host country France, which eked by Germany in another tight semifinal. —Chris Branch, The Athletic, 9 Aug. 2024

Polling last week showed Trump eking ahead of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, but a recent poll in Iowa now gives Harris the slight edge in the typically red state. —Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 4 Nov. 2024

Despite an extremely narrow race that appears to be a tie, a raft of late polls showed Trump eking ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris. —Paolo Confino, Fortune, 29 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Adverb

Middle English, from Old English ēac; akin to Old High German ouh also, Latin aut or, Greek au again

Verb

Middle English echen, (northern and east Midlands) eken "to increase, extend, add, improve," going back to Old English īcan, gīcan, ȳcan, geȳcan, (Anglian) geēcan "to increase, add to, enhance," weak-verb derivative from Germanic *aukan- "to increase" (class VII strong verb), whence Old English ēacen, ēcen (past participle) "increased, endowed with excellent qualities, mighty," Old Frisian āka "to increase," Old Saxon ōkan "to make pregnant," Old High German zuoouhhan "to add," Old Icelandic auka "to increase, add to, surpass," Gothic aukan "to increase" (intransitive); Germanic *aukan- going back to a present stem from the Indo-European verbal base *h₂eu̯g- "grow, increase," whence also, with other formations, Lithuanian áugu, áugti "to grow," Latin augēō, augēre, perfect auxī "to increase, make greater, heighten"

Note: Regarding the most likely related Indo-European base *h₂u̯eks- see the note at wax entry 3.

First Known Use

Adverb

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Verb

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing eke

• eke out