break even

for income to equal expenses. (This implies that money was not made or lost.) Unfortunately, my business just managed to break even last year. I made a bad investment, but I broke even.

to earn as much money as you spent Some of the books we publish do not sell enough copies to break even.

if a person or a business breaks even, they do not make or lose any money from their business After a bad year in 1995, the company just about broke even in 1996.

Neither gain nor lose in some venture, recoup the amount one invested. For example, If the dealer sells five cars a week, he'll break even. This expression probably came from one or another card game (some authorities say it was faro), where it meant to bet that a card would win and lose an equal number of times. It soon was transferred to balancing business gains and losses. Novelist Sinclair Lewis so used it in Our Mr. Wrenn (1914). The usage gave rise to the noun break-even point, for the amount of sales or production needed for a firm to recoup its investment. [Late 1800s]

To gain an amount equal to that invested, as in a commercial venture.