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

• earn
• obtain

Examples of eke in a Sentence

Verb

eked out a living from the family's small farm

Recent Examples on the Web

Verb

But a bill to create a new 24% wholesale tax on cannabis to fund roads that previously breezed through the state House eked through the Michigan Senate by just one vote. —Clara Hendrickson, Freep.com, 7 Oct. 2025

Even after the Reds eked across their first playoff runs since 2013 in the seventh against Snell on three hits, the Dodgers equaled that in the bottom half of the inning to push the lead back to eight. —C. Trent Rosecrans, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2025

The worse the Facebook experience got, the more Meta eked free labor from content creators while retaining revenue from advertisers. —Kyle Chayka, New Yorker, 1 Oct. 2025

That’s because the Giants have helped them out by resembling a cable car forever eking up one of San Francisco’s large hills. —Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Aug. 2025

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

Rhymes for eke

• beak
• beek
• bleak
• cheek
• chic
• clique
• creak
• creek
• freak
• geek
• greek
• leak