If you eke a living or eke out an existence, you manage to survive with very little money. That forced peasant farmers to try to eke a living off steep hillsides He was eking out an existence on a few francs a day. Also
To increase; to add to; to augment; now commonly used with out, the notion conveyed being to add to, or piece out by a laborious, inferior, or scanty addition; as, to eke out a scanty supply of one kind with some other
(transitive verb.) before 12th century. Middle English, from Old English Iecan, Ecan; akin to Old High German ouhhOn to add, Latin augEre to increase, Greek auxein.