What is the meaning of eke?

Answer 1

EKE : to extract with effort, i.e. to marginally supplement or ration Transitive verb used as "EKE OUT" : to marginally accomplish or subsist Example : "The homeless man eked out a living by selling cans."

Answer 2

"To eke out" means to make longer or greater, particularly with something that is in short supply. "We had to eke out our diminishing food supply with nuts and berries we gathered in the wood." "Commercial breadmakers eke out their flour by adding wood fibre." "In order to eke out the time I had to prepare my presentation, I worked on it on the bus on the way to work." "As a struggling author, I had to eke out my income from writing." (Presumably that meant having a second job.)

Because of uses such as the last sentence, many users of this word forget or never knew that you have to eke out something with something else: food with berries, bread with wood fibre, one income with a second income. As a result they use the word, particularly in the phrase "to eke out a living" to mean to make a living, which is the exact opposite of its real meaning. They understand "I eked out a living as a writer" to mean "I barely made a living as a writer" when it really means "I supplemented my income as a writer because it wasn't enough."

However, ignorance triumphs supreme, and you are much more likely to hear the word used improperly than correctly.

Answer 3

From there he managed to eke out a small lead, as his two pursuers swapped places.