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Definition of Eke out
1. Verb. Supplement what is thought to be deficient. "Braque eked out his collages with charcoal"
2. Verb. Live from day to day, as with some hardship. "He eked out his years in great poverty"
3. Verb. Make by laborious and precarious means. "He eked out a living as a painter"
Generic synonyms: Bring In, Clear, Earn, Gain, Make, Pull In, Realise, Realize, Take In
4. Verb. Obtain with difficulty. "He eked out some information from the archives"
Definition of Eke out
1. Verb. (transitive) to supplement ¹
2. Verb. (transitive) To obtain with difficulty or effort. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Lexicographical Neighbors of Eke Out
Literary usage of Eke out
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage by Inc. Merriam-Webster (1994)
"Fowler 1 926 and Phythian 1979 are more restrictive, saying that eke out means only
... The commentators' approval, such as it is, of the use of eke out is ..."
2. The Literary World by Samuel R. Crocker, Edward Abbott, Nicholas Paine Gilman, Madeline Vaughan Abbott Bushnell, Bliss Carman, Herbert Copeland (1887)
"... of a mountain cottage in Germany, Frau Geisel and her grandson Kasper, who
eke out a scanty living by making lace of a famous and beautiful kind. ..."
3. The Standard Dictionary of Facts: History, Language, Literature, Biography edited by Henry Woldmar Ruoff (1909)
"She waa brought up by her grandfather, who was in his dotage, and who tried to
eke out a narrow living by selling curiosities. At length, through terror of ..."
4. The Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery edited by Lunsford Pitts Yandell, Theodore Stout Bell (1844)
"Poverty of Medical Men: how to eke out a livelihood.—"One of the most certain
signs (says a writer in the French Medical Gazette) of the 'decadence' of a ..."
5. The Ridpath Library of Universal Literature: A Biographical and by John Clark Ridpath (1903)
"His father, a graduate of the University of Glasgow, after many reverses in
fortune, became the master of a school in Maghera, in Ireland, and, to eke out ..."