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eke out

verb

Etymology

From obsolete eke (“to add to, augment; to increase”) + out.

Definitions

  1. To supplement.

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

  2. To obtain with difficulty or effort.

    • Near-synonym: squeeze out
    • 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.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for eke out. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA