break even

verb, noun, adj — 4 senses

break even

verbalso spelled break-even

1

Idiomatic To neither gain nor lose money.

After an entire night playing poker, he nearly broke even.
The BTC had no clear plan how to fulfil its remit to break even, year-on-year.2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 43:

2

Idiomatic To stay the same; to neither advance nor regress.

It's a lot of work just to break even and keep the weeds down.

Derived terms: break-even, break-even point, break-even time
Related terms: at cost, pay for itself, wash its face

break-even

noun

1

Business, Management The level of revenues sufficient to cover costs.

We'll never reach break-even if our variable costs are higher than our selling price.

Synonyms: break-even point

break-even

adj

1

that is characterized by the level of revenues just sufficient to cover costs

The Altair 8800 computer was a break-even sale for MITS.
The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created to own not just the railways, but also London Underground, docks, inland waterways, and some road haulage activities. Its remit was to operate on a break-even basis, with sustained losses unacceptable.2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 38:

Derived terms: break-even point
Related terms: break even

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for break even and break-even.