Word.ws English Dictionary

broke even

broke even is the simple past and past participle of break even.

Meaning of break even

Verb

break even (third-person singular simple present breaks even, present participle breaking even, simple past broke even, past participle broken even)

  1. (idiomatic) To neither gain nor lose a quantity of something, (especially) money.
    • After an entire night playing poker, he nearly broke even.
  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.

Questions about broke even

What is broke even the simple past and past participle of?
Broke even is the simple past and past participle of break even.

Words near broke even in the dictionary

  1. broke containment
  2. broke cover
  3. broke down
  4. broke down to brass tacks
  5. broke edge
  6. broke even
  7. broke fast
  8. broke free
  9. broke from
  10. broke gates
  11. broke ground

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: broke even (page history and authors); break even (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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