What does eking mean?
"Eking" is the present participle of the verb "eke," a word that today survives almost entirely within the phrase "eke out." To eke out something is to stretch a scanty supply to its limits or to supplement a meagre amount so that it just barely suffices — whether that means eking out food stores through a hard winter, eking out a living from precarious work, or eking out a narrow victory. The verb carries strong connotations of frugality, hardship, and marginal survival: whoever is eking something out is managing, but only just. The word derives from Old English "ēacian," meaning to increase or augment, which also gave English the archaic sense of "eke" as "also." Because of its fixed collocation and literary flavour, "eking" appears most often in journalism, history writing, and descriptive prose about poverty, rationing, and endurance rather than in casual conversation.
verb (present participle and gerund of "eke")The present participle of the verb "eke," meaning to make a limited supply of something go further, almost always in the phrase "eke out." It describes supplementing or stretching scarce resources with great difficulty.
- To make a small supply of something last longer by careful or frugal use, nearly always followed by "out" (as in "eking out supplies").
- To supplement something meagre so as to barely achieve or maintain it (as in "eking out a living"), often by adding effort or additional means.
"She was eking out her last tin of coffee until payday."
"Farmers were eking out their seed grain through the long winter."
"He scraped together a living, eking out a modest income from odd jobs."
Every time you say "eke out a living," you're using one of English's oldest survival verbs — a word that has meant 'to make do' since before Shakespeare was born.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of eking
"Eking" comes from the Middle English verb "eken," descended from Old English "ēacian," meaning to increase or augment, itself formed on "ēaca" (an increase) and related to the adverb "ēac" meaning "also." This Old English adverb survives fossilised in the archaic phrase "eke and name" (likewise named). In modern English the verb narrowed to the sense of adding to or stretching a meagre supply, and it now occurs almost exclusively in combination with the particle "out." Cognate forms appear across the Germanic family, including Dutch "ook" and German "auch," both meaning "also."
Related word forms
How eking is actually used
"Eke" is virtually bound to the particle "out" in modern usage; it appears almost exclusively in formal or literary registers and carries a connotation of hardship, scarcity, and struggle.
Easily confused with eking
"Eek" is an exclamation of alarm, while "eking" is the -ing form of the verb "eke," meaning to stretch or supplement a meagre supply.