eke

1 of 2

adverb

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

Examples of eke in a Sentence

Verb eked out a living from the family's small farm
Recent Examples on the Web
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Verb
One way that the duo was able to eke even more performance out of the One was to ignore the UCI’s pesky rulebook. Bryan Hood, Robb Report, 19 Mar. 2026 The Iranian regime will seek to eke it out and wear America down. The Week Uk, TheWeek, 7 Mar. 2026 Currently, a family of that size has to be eking by on $33,000 a year to qualify as poor in the federal government’s eyes. Olivier Sterck, The Conversation, 6 Mar. 2026 The Leafs have been eking by without two top-four defenders, Chris Tanev and Brandon Carlo. Jonas Siegel, New York Times, 14 Dec. 2025 See All Example Sentences for eke

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 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

Time Traveler
The first known use of eke was before the 12th century

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Cite this Entry

“Eke.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eke. Accessed 24 Mar. 2026.

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