eke out
phrasal verb.phrasal verb. to make a small amount of something last longer by using it very carefully.
phrasal verb. to supplement or stretch a meager resource with great effort; often used in the context of survival or making a living.
They had to eke out their food until the next delivery.
The retired couple managed to eke out a living by selling vegetables from their small garden.
During the long winter, the villagers were forced to eke out their remaining grain supplies by mixing them with ground bark.
From obsolete eke (“to add to, augment; to increase”) + out.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
usually followed by 'a living', 'an existence', or a specific resource like 'supplies'.
the word 'eke' comes from an Old English word meaning 'to increase'; help students by linking it to the idea of 'stretching' a resource.
He eked his salary out.He eked out his salary.while technically possible to separate, 'eke out' is almost always used in the inseparable pattern with the object following the particle.
Last updated April 24, 2026