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Crossword clues for eke out

Wiktionary
eke out

vb. 1 (context transitive English) to supplement 2 (context transitive English) To obtain with difficulty or effort.

WordNet
eke out
  1. v. supplement what is thought to be deficient; "He eked out his meager pay by giving private lessons"; "Braque eked out his collages with charcoal" [syn: fill out]

  2. live from day to day, as with some hardship; "He eked out his years in great poverty"

  3. make by laborious and precarious means; "He eked out a living as a painter" [syn: squeeze out]

  4. obtain with difficulty; "He eked out some information from the archives" [syn: squeeze out]

Usage examples of "eke out".

It was by no means unusual for such men to eke out their meager salary by the acquisition of small bits of intelligence, which might be sold or traded.

They would be forced to fall back on the precious waterskins to eke out the supply.

He'd already had one meal that day, and he needed to eke out his meager store of provisions.

I only wish to eke out my last few years honoring your fathers memory.

Besides nuts and berries, he had found pine cones, sedges, and roots to eke out the bread and cheese.

Only select musicians eke out a living from their noisy vocation (most of them rock stars who own their labels - George Michael had to fight Sony to do just that) and very few actors come close to deriving subsistence level income from their profession.

We, their children, did not know how hard it was for our parents to eke out a living, how unsure they were of their jobs, how unsure they were of tomorrow.

Everyone safe and fed and now my percentage of Ninth Uncle's plastic flower factory, negotiated so patiently, will, with joss, pay my rent in a year or two, and I can eat good Ning-tok rice gruel three times a week free which helps eke out my money so that I needn't take the squeeze that is so easy to obtain but would ruin my future.

When your nation has no standing army, there is nothing for it but to defend it yourself, with your tenants at your back, and hired swords and foreign mercenaries to eke out, depending on what the privy purse can afford.