failure to fulfil an obligation, especially to repay a loan or appear in a law court

the company will have to restructure its debts to avoid default

the deteriorating economy pushed defaults to almost $20 billion

a preselected option adopted by a computer program or other mechanism when no alternative is specified by the user or programmer

the default is fifty lines

default settings

fail to fulfil an obligation, especially to repay a loan or to appear in a law court

the dealer could repossess the goods if the customer defaulted

some had defaulted on student loans

(of a device or computer program) revert automatically to (a preselected option)

when you start a fresh letter the system will default to its own style