de·fault
(dĭ-fôlt′)n.1. Failure to perform a task or fulfill an obligation, especially failure to meet a financial obligation: in default on a loan.
2. Law Failure of a party in a case to make a required court appearance.
3. The failure of one or more competitors or teams to participate in a contest: won the championship by default.
4. a. Computers A particular setting or value for a variable that is assigned automatically by an operating system and remains in effect unless canceled or overridden by the operator: changed the default for the page margins.
b. A situation or condition that is the case in the absence of active intervention.
v. de·fault·ed, de·fault·ing, de·faults
v.intr.1. a. To fail to do what is required.
b. To fail to pay money when it is due.
2. Computers To revert to a default.
3. Law a. To fail to appear in court as a party to a case when summoned.
b. To lose a case by not appearing.
4. To fail to take part in or complete a scheduled contest.
v.tr.1. To fail to perform or pay.
2. Law To lose (a case) by failing to appear in court.
3. To fail to take part in or complete (a contest, for example).
Idiom: in default of Through the failure, absence, or lack of.
[Middle English
defaute, from Old French, from past participle of
defaillir,
to fail, grow weak :
de-,
intensive pref.; see
de- +
faillir; see
fail.]
de·fault′er n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.