Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
eke, eke out (vv.), eke (adv., coord. conj.)
The old verb eke is obsolete or dialectal today, but in the combined eke out it still forms a Standard locution, meaning “to supplement or stretch out a supply” (We eked out our little bit of hamburger with lots of beans and rice) or “to manage with difficulty to make a living” (For several years they managed to eke out a bare existence on the little land they owned). The other eke, which is archaic and turns up mainly in old literature, means “also”: Supposing the wax good and eke the thimble (from Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, 1759).
