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to break even

to break even

27 3.3
Earn enough to cover all costs with no profit or loss
  • phrasal verb
  • /breɪk ˈiːvən/
translation icon : cubrir costes
  • When FunAsia opened in December of 2002, the goal was to break even within a year.
  • money or breaking even
  • company to break even
  • losing money or breaking even

So yeah, I'm hoping to just if I break even, that's awesome.

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Examples

  • But let's just say they did break even on cash flow.

  • After analyzing the budget, the company realized they would break even this quarter without making a profit.

  • It's gonna take 50 for me to break even.

  • We'll only break even if we agree to three and a half.

  • In other words, you have to make two million dollars to break even?

  • But most technologies are at break even or will break even shortly.

  • Competitive pricing allows no means of financing the pipeline and allows each company to break even.

    Academic text (1998)
  • And so this is just one more reason why you guys need to understand what a business has to look at from a break even standpoint just to stay open.

  • If I was going to break even (let alone turn a profit), I'd need a second printing.

    Academic text (2009)
  • Currently, commercial taxes in Somerville only break even, while residential taxes fail to cover the cost of core municipal services.

    Academic text (2001)

Antonyms

1.0

Become lower in value or quality

140 3.2

To get an advantage from something

To earn more money than you spend running a business or project

How Profitable

profitable
191 3.8
to break even
27 3.3
at a loss
7 4.3

Surface Forms

break even infinitive
breaking even present participle
breaks even third person singular
broke even past
broken even past participle

Morphology

break + even

The adjective 'even' clearly signals equality, so a learner who knows 'even' may infer that the phrase concerns equal amounts; however 'break' here has a non-literal, metaphorical sense meaning 'reach' or 'come to' rather than its usual sense of damaging or separating. Because the verb's role is not fully predictable from its basic meaning, the expression is only partially compositional and best classified as semi-transparent.

Etymology

Break even may come from simple money counting. One popular story says shopkeepers would break a pile of coins so both sides were even, and when the two parts matched they had 'no profit and no loss', which is why the phrase means the same today.