[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.)
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 quarter-gallery.
