eke
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: ēk
ipa: /iːk/
ipa: /ik/
rhymes: -iːk
homophone: eek
Forms: form: ekes
form: eking
form: ekeing
form: eked
form: eked
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: eke
form: eke
form: eked
form: eke
form: ekest
form: eked
form: ekedst
form: ekes
form: eketh
form: eked
form: eke
form: eked
form: eke
form: eked
form: eke
form: -
form: eking
form: eked
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English eke (“addition, increase, enlargement”), from Old English ēaca, from Proto-Germanic *aukô, from *aukaną (“to increase, add, enlarge”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewg- (“to enlarge, increase”). The English noun is cognate with Old Frisian āka (“addition, increase; bonus”), Old Norse auki (“growth, increase, proliferation”).
The verb is derived partly:
* from the noun; and
* from Middle English eken (“to increase, add, enlarge”) [and other forms], from three distinct verbs (1) Old English īeċan (“to increase, add, enlarge”) (transitive), (2) ēacan (“to be enlarged or increased”), and (3) ēacian, all from Proto-Germanic *aukaną (“to grow, increase”); see further above.
The English verb is cognate with Latin augeō (“to augment, increase; to enlarge, expand, spread; to lengthen; to exaggerate; to enrich; to honour; (figuratively) to exalt, praise”), Old English ēac (“also”), Old Norse auka (“to augment, increase; to add; to exceed, surpass”), Icelandic auka (“to augment, increase to add; to exceed, surpass”), (Danish øge (“to enhance; to increase”), Norwegian Bokmål øke (“to increase”), Norwegian Nynorsk auka (“to increase”), Swedish öka (“to increase”)).
Senses: examples: text: Is not enough, that thruſt from heauen dew / Here endleſſe penaunce for one fault I pay, / But that redoubled crime with vengeaunce new / Thou biddeſt me to eeke?
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 42, page 72:
text: 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.
ref: 1694 October 8, “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, volume I, number CXIII, London: Prin[t]ed for Woo[d]man and Lyon […], published 1727, →OCLC, page 303:
text: Pity the hag-ridd'n quiv'rer who contracts / To ſuperſtition's gloom religion's joy, / And humbles adoration into dread. / Who ekeing his inch'd meaſure from within, / Peeps through his narrow ſoul's dim loop-hole wink, / And inſolently by his own ſcale takes / The altitude of heaven.
ref: a. 1751, Aaron Hill, “Free Thoughts upon Faith: Or, The Religion of Reason”, in The Poetical Works of Aaron Hill, Esq. […], Edinburgh: Printed by Mundell and Son, […], published 1794, →OCLC; republished in Robert Anderson, editor, The Works of the British Poets. […], volume VIII, London: Printed for John & Arthur Arch; and for Bell & Bradfute, and J. Mundell & Co. […], 1795, →OCLC, page 729, column 2:
text: All ekes [or helps] as the geni-wren said, when she piss'd in the sea. / Many littles make a mickle, the whole ocean is made up of drops.
ref: 1768, J[ohn] Ray, A Complete Collection of English Proverbs; also, the Most Celebrated Proverbs of the Scotch, Italian, French, Spanish, and Other Languages. […] Reproduced Verbatim from the Edition of 1768., London: Printed for T. and J. Allman, […]; T. Boone, […]; and Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, […], published 1817, →OCLC, page 71:
text: [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.
ref: 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:
text: It must be acknowledged, that Mr. [William] Gifford's versification is sometimes unharmonious, and even harsh; that, like almost every other translator, he too often has recourse to eking words in order to complete his measure, and that his rhymes are frequently imperfect and faulty.
ref: 1811 June, “For the Anthology. Remarks on English Translations of the Roman Poets. No. 15. Juvenal.”, in The Monthly Anthology, and Boston Review. […], volume X, Boston, Mass.: Printed and published by T[homas] B. Wait and Co. […], →OCLC, page 384:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: If however the distention from the wind cometh suddenly, then these things cannot help, since that will turn into dropsy. If one applieth the warming leechdoms to that, then one eketh or augmenteth the disease.
ref: 1865, “Leech Book”, in Oswald Cockayne, editor, Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England. Being a Collection of Documents, for the Most Part Never Before Printed, Illustrating the History of Science in this Country Before the Norman Conquest. […] (Rerum Britannicarum Medii Ævi Scriptores, or Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages; 35), London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, →OCLC, book II, chapter xxxix, page 249:
text: [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.
ref: 1934, Robert Graves, chapter I, in I, Claudius: […], New York, N.Y.: The Modern Library, →OCLC, page 3:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: It [New England] is also a place of history, a place that defines what it means to be American. Here grew the men and women who founded this country. […] sailors, whalers, and lobstermen eking a hard-won living from the ocean.
ref: 2012, Stewart M. Green, “Introduction”, in Amy Lyons, editor, New England (Scenic Routes & Byways), Guilford, Conn.: Morris Book Publishing, →ISBN, page 1:
text: 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.
ref: 2012 July 12, Ben Perry, “Branson’s spaceship steals the spotlight at airshow”, in Yahoo! News, archived from the original on 26 Apr 2020:
text: Very nearly as a cure for the man's innocence Tengan fired his cannons on him, and as the pilot, doomed and honorable, eked his plane a few metres into the air, both he and it were consumed by a frightful orb of fire.
ref: 2013, Thomas Keneally, chapter 2, in Shame and the Captives (A Knopf Book), North Sydney, N.S.W.: Random House Australia, →ISBN; 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Washington Square Press, Simon & Schuster, December 2015, →ISBN, page 24:
glosses: Chiefly in the form eke out: to add to, to augment; to increase; to lengthen.
Derived terms: eke out
eker