▪ I. eking, vbl. n.
(ˈiːkɪŋ)
[f. eke v. + -ing1.]
1. The action of adding or making an addition; the action of putting an ‘eke’ to (a bell-rope).
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. viii. 53 In ekyng als of Goddis serwyce Scho fowndyt..twa chapellanyis. 1576 in Miss T. Smith Rotherham Acc. (1878) 12 For ekeing of a bell-rope. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Sept. 31 But such eeking hath made my hart sore. |
2. An augmentation, increase.
| 1393 Gower Conf. II. 22 And make an ekynge of my peine. 1483 Cath. Angl. 112 An Ekynge, augmentum. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Accrue, a growth, eeking, augmentation. |
3. (See quot.)
| 1819 J. Ross Voy. Discovery p. xviii, Hooks and ekeings were placed in the bows above the lower-deck hook. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Ekeing, a piece of wood fitted, by scarphing or butting, to make good a deficiency in length, as the end of a knee and the like. The ekeing is also the carved work under the lower part of the quarter⁓piece, at the aft part of the gallery. |
▪ II. eking, ppl. a.
(ˈiːkɪŋ)
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That serves to eke out.
| 1653 B[arnabas] O[ley] Account of Wks. in Jackson's Wks., His stile..is more short than other Authours in Relatives, in Eeking and helping particles. 1814 D'Israeli Quarrels Auth. (1867) 346 Suppressed invectives and eking rhymes could but ill appease so fierce a mastiff. |