With luck, by early evening recoups what was lost (10)

I believe the answer is:

breakseven

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'recoups what was lost' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'with luck by early evening' is the wordplay.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'luck by' becomes 'break' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'early evening' becomes 'seven' (I've seen this in another clue).
'break'+'seven' is 'BREAKSEVEN'.

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