eke
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: agriculture
beekeeping
business
lifestyle
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”)).
Inflected forms:
form: ekes
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: ekes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: eking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: ekeing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: eked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: eked
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: eke
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: eke
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: eked
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: eke
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: ekest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: eked
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: ekedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: ekes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: eketh
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: eked
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: eke
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: eked
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: eke
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: eked
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: eke
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: eking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: eked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
Senses:
gloss: An addition.
pos: noun
tags: dialectal
examples: [T]hey [the Catholics and Puritans] encumbered their verſion [of the Bible] with a load of uſeleſs Italics; often without the leaſt neceſſity, and almoſt always to the detriment of the text. In fact, either the words in Italics are virtually implied in the Hebrew, or they are not. In the former caſe they are a real part of the text, and ſhould be printed in the ſame character: in the latter, they are generally ill aſſorted and clumſy ekes, that may well be ſpared; and which often disfigure the narration under pretence of connecting it.
gloss: A small stand on which a beehive is placed.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
examples: Various have been the contrivances for effecting the separation of storage and breeding departments in a hive. […] An empty box or hive, pushed beneath a full one, is denominated a Nadir,—a mode of practice not always advisable except in the case of swarms of the same year, or towards the latter end of very abundant seasons. A still smaller addition to a common hive consists of merely a few bands of straw, on which it is raised temporarily, and this constitutes an eke. […] The entrance to the stock-hive must be stopped, and one made at the bottom of the eke or nadir.
gloss: A spacer put between or over or under hive parts to make more space.
pos: noun
gloss: Chiefly in the form eke out: to add to, to augment; to increase; to lengthen.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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?
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.
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.
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.
[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.
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.
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.
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.
[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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Derived words: ekeing
Translations: