noun
- failure to act; inaction or neglect: They lost their best client by sheer default.
- failure to meet financial obligations.
- Law. failure to perform an act or obligation legally required, especially to appear in court or to plead at a time assigned.
- Sports. failure to arrive in time for, participate in, or complete a scheduled match.
- lack; want; absence.
- Computers. a value that a program or operating system assumes, or a course of action that a program or operating system will take, when the user or programmer specifies no overriding value or action.
verb (used without object)
- to fail in fulfilling or satisfying an engagement, claim, or obligation.
- to fail to meet financial obligations or to account properly for money in one’s care: When he defaulted in his payments, the bank foreclosed on the car.
- Law. to fail to appear in court.
- Sports.
- to fail to participate in or complete a match.
- to lose a match by default.
verb (used with object)
- to fail to perform or pay: to default a debt.
- to declare to be in default, especially legally: The judge defaulted the defendant.
- Sports.
- to fail to compete in (a scheduled game, race, etc.).
- to lose by default.
- Law. to lose by failure to appear in court.
noun
- a failure to act, esp a failure to meet a financial obligation or to appear in a court of law at a time specified
- absence or lack
- by default in the absence of opposition or a better alternativehe became prime minister by default
- in default of through or in the lack or absence of
- judgment by default law a judgment in the plaintiff’s favour when the defendant fails to plead or to appear
- lack, want, or need
- (also ˈdiːfɔːlt) computing
- the preset selection of an option offered by a system, which will always be followed except when explicitly altered
- (as modifier)default setting
verb
- (intr; often foll by on or in) to fail to make payment when due
- (intr) to fail to fulfil or perform an obligation, engagement, etcto default in a sporting contest
- law to lose (a case) by failure to appear in court
- (tr) to declare that (someone) is in default
late 14c., “be lacking, be missing,” also “become weak,” from default (n.). Related: Defaulted; defaulting.
early 13c., “offense, crime, sin,” later (late 13c.) “failure, failure to act,” from Old French defaute (12c.) “fault, defect, failure, culpability, lack, privation,” from Vulgar Latin *defallita “a deficiency or failure,” past participle of *defallere, from Latin de- “away” (see de-) + fallere “to deceive, to cheat; to put wrong, to lead astray, cause to be mistaken; to escape notice of, be concealed from” (see fail (v.)). The financial sense is first recorded 1858; the computing sense is from 1966.
Failure to pay a debt when it is due.
see in default of.