eke out

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To supplement.
   • 1934, Robert Graves, I, Claudius, Penguin, 1953, Chapter 1, p. 9,

     […] it 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.

   The old man eked out his pension by selling vegetables from his garden.

2. (transitive) To obtain with difficulty or effort.

   He eked out a living selling vegetables from the garden.