Eke | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Ēke, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. EKED (ēkt); p. pr. & vb. n. EKING.] [Also eek; A-S. eacan, O. Sax. ocan, Goth. aukan, O. H. Ger. aukon, ouchōn, O. Fries. aka, Icel. auka, Sw. öka, Dan. oge, Lat. augere, Gr. αὔξειν.]

To increase; to enlarge; to lengthen; to extend. “To eke my pain.” Spenser.
To add or supply what is deficient or scanty, by addition or substitution; to enlarge; to lengthen; to prolong;—generally with out; as, to eke out a scanty supply of one kind with some other; to eke out a piece of cloth.

He eked out by his wits an income of barely fifty pounds. Macaulay.

Ēke, adv.

adverb

adv. [A-S. eác, O. Sax. âc, ac, O. Fries. âk, oke, Goth. & Icel. auk, O. H. Ger. ouh, M. H. Ger. ouch, N. H. Ger. auch, D. ook, Sw. och, Dan. og, derived from the preceding verb.] In addition; also; likewise.

*’Twill be prodigious hard to prove That this is eke the throne of love. Prior.*

Ēke, n.

noun

n. Something added to another. [Rare.] “Clumsy ekes that may well be spared.” Geddes.