eke

Verb

eke (third-person singular simple present ekes, present participle eking, simple past and past participle eked)

1. (obsolete except in eke out) To increase; to add to, augment, lengthen.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book I, canto V:

     Here endlesse penance for one fault I pay, / But that redoubled crime with vengeance new / Thou biddest me to eeke?

   • 2012 July 11, Ben Perry, “Branson's spaceship steals the spotlight at airshow”, in Yahoo News‎, retrieved 2012-07-12:

     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.

Adverb

eke (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) also
   • 1557: Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, "The Soote Season"

     The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings / With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale;

Noun

eke (plural ekes)

1. (obsolete) An addition.
   • Geddes

     Clumsy ekes that may well be spared.

Noun

eke (plural ekes)

1. (beekeeping, archaic) A very small addition to the bottom of a beehive, often merely of a few bands of straw, on which the hive is raised temporarily.

Adverb

eke (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Also.
   • 1663, Hudibras, by Samuel Butler, part 1, canto 1

     'Tis false: for Arthur wore in hall / Round-table like a farthingal, / On which, with shirt pull'd out behind, / And eke before, his good knights dined.

   • 1782, The Diverting History of John Gilpin, by William Cowper

     'John Gilpin was a citizen / of credit and renown / A train-band captain eke was he / of famous London town.'

See also

• eke out

Declension

Derived terms

• ekecsont

Declension