eke out

present singular third person ekes out · participle present eking out · participle past eked out · past eked out

1. transitiveTo supplement.

   The old man eked out his pension by selling vegetables from his garden.

   4 more examples

   Now the reaſons why they teach the calves to drink ſo ſoon are various. [...] Secondly, the goodwife ſaves milk by this way of drinking, for ſhe quickly ekes out the milk with pottage, &c.

   1694 October 7, “A Letter from a Lancashire Friend about Breeding Cattle. […]”, in Richard Bradley, editor, compiled by John Houghton, Husbandry and Trade Improv’d: Being a Collection of Many Valuable Materials Relating to Corn, Cattle, Coals, Hops, Wool, &c. […] In Three Volumes, number CXIII, London: Prin[t]ed for Woo[d]man and Lyon […], published 1727, →OCLC, page 303

   [T]he author [William Belsham] ekes out his volume with a great many extraneous details, which relate to a ſubſequent period; [...] The whole work is ſingularly confuſed and deſultory: and, indeed, the plan which the author adopts, is altogether incompatible with that unity and coherence which is eſſential to hiſtory.

   1805 July, “Art. XIV. History of Great Britain. By William Belsham. Vol. XI. and XII. London, 1805. 8vo. [book review]”, in The Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal, volume VI, number XII, Edinburgh: Printed by D. Willison, […], for Archibald Constable & Co. […], and Longman Hurst Rees and Orme, […], →OCLC, page 428

   A majority of the properties are so small as not to afford a subsistence to the proprietors, of whom, according to some computations, as many as three millions are obliged to eke out their means of support either by working for hire, or by taking additional land, generally on metayer tenure.

   1848, John Stuart Mill, “Continuation of the Same Subject [Of Peasant Proprietors]”, in Principles of Political Economy: With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy. […], volume I, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], →OCLC, book II (Distribution), § 4, page 338

   [I]t is indeed Claudius himself who is writing this book, and no mere secretary of his, and not one of those official annalists, either, to whom public men are in the habit of communicating their recollections, in the hope that elegant writing will eke out meagreness of subject-matter and flattery soften vices.

   1934, Robert Graves, chapter I, in I, Claudius: […], New York, N.Y.: The Modern Library, →OCLC, page 3

2. transitiveTo obtain with difficulty or effort.

   Near-synonym: squeeze out

   5 more examples

   He eked out a living selling vegetables from his garden.

   […]stylistically raw work known as outsider art that was frequently made by Southern blacks and whites who eked out livings as farmers or repairmen.

   2001 October 23, Roberta Smith, “Howard Finster, Folk Artist and Preacher, Dies at 84”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 12 May 2021

   But before too long, the rations that Parivash was ekeing out to feed them fell short and the tension that sprang from so many families piled in together overflowed.

   2011, Kamin Mohammadi, “Displaced”, in The Cypress Tree: A Love Letter to Iran, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN; paperback edition, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012, →ISBN, page 197

   British tycoon Richard Branson stole the show here Wednesday, announcing that he and his family would be on Virgin Galactic's first trip into space, as Airbus and Boeing eked out more plane orders.

   2012 July 12, Ben Perry, “Branson’s spaceship steals the spotlight at airshow”, in Yahoo! News, archived from the original on 26 Apr 2020

   Her stomach growled at the prospect of eating roast rabbit for breakfast; the last time she had eaten meat had been three days ago. Since then, they had been ekeing out the last dusty contents of a sack of oats, watered down and cooked to make a sloppy gruel.

   2013, Meriel Fuller, chapter 1, in The Knight’s Fugitive Lady (Harlequin Historical; 370), Don Mills, Ont.: Harlequin Enterprises, →ISBN, page 7

   Synonyms: squeeze out