default
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɪˈfɒlt/
ipa: /ˈdiːˌfɒlt/
ipa: /dɪˈfɔːlt/
ipa: /ˈdiːˌfɔːlt/
ipa: /dɪˈfɔlt/
ipa: /ˈdiːˌfɔlt/
ipa: /dɪˈfɑlt/
ipa: /ˈdiːˌfɑlt/
ipa: /dəˈfɒːlt/
note: Dublin
ipa: [dəˈfäl]
note: Dublin
ipa: [dəˈfälʔ]
rhymes: -ɒlt
rhymes: -ɔːlt
Forms: form: defaults
Etymology: From Middle English defaut, defaute, from Old French defaute (“fault, defect, failure, culpability, lack”), ultimately from Latin de- (“away”) + fallo (“deceive, cheat, escape notice of”).
Senses: examples: text: He failed to make payments on time, and he is now in default.
text: You may cure this default by paying the full amount within a week.
topics: business
finance
glosses: The condition of failing to meet an obligation.
examples: text: The deadline has passed, so the debt is now in default.
topics: business
finance
glosses: The condition of being an obligation that has not been met.
topics: business
computing
electrical-engineering
electricity
electromagnetism
electronics
energy
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
sciences
glosses: the original software programming settings as set by the factory
examples: text: The team's three losses include one default.
glosses: A loss incurred by failing to compete.
examples: text: The man became the leader of the group as a default.
text: One of the darlings of the early vegetarian movement (particularly in its even sadder form, the cutlet), it was on the menu at John Harvey Kellogg's Battle Creek Sanitarium [sic], and has since become the default Sunday option for vegetarians – and a default source of derision for everyone else.
ref: 2011 December 15, Felicity Cloake, “How to cook the perfect nut roast”, in Guardian:
text: Overall the signage at NIE has the appearance being a top-down artefact driven by institutional policy with English set as the default language.
ref: 2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 6:
glosses: A selection made in the absence of an alternative.
examples: text: If you don't specify a number of items, the default is 1.
glosses: A value used when none has been given; a tentative value or standard that is presumed.
topics: law
glosses: The failure of a defendant to appear and answer a summons and complaint.
examples: text: This evil has happened through the governor's default.
glosses: A failing or failure; omission of that which ought to be done; neglect to do what duty or law requires.
examples: text: one was dragging a great coat from the window, before which it had long hung as a blind, in total default of glass or shutters
ref: 1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 156:
glosses: Lack; absence.
examples: text: regardless of our merit or default
ref: 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC:
glosses: Fault; offence; wrong act.
Derived terms: by default
credit default option
credit default swap
default gateway
defaultism
defaultist
default judgement
default judgment
defaultless
defaultly
default mode network
in default
make default
nondefault
redefault