<p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>failure to act; inaction or neglect: They lost their best client by sheer default.</li><li>Finance: failure to meet financial obligations, as when a borrower misses or stops making monthly loan payments: A default on your mortgage can lead to losing the house.</li><li>Law: failure to perform an act or obligation legally required, especially to appear in court or to plead at a time assigned: The judge dismissed the suit for default of the defendant.</li><li>Sports: failure to arrive in time for, participate in, or complete a scheduled game, race, etc.: So far the Cougars have had three losses, two wins, and one default.</li><li>a person’s automatic or standard way of acting or responding; go-to or reflex: Her default is to argue about everything I say, unless she’s in a really good mood.</li><li>lack; want; absence: For default of anything better, he took a job washing dishes.</li><li>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.</li></ul><p><strong>Adjective</strong></p><ul><li>being a person’s automatic or standard action, response, etc.; go-to: Chocolate is my default choice for ice cream, but when I feel adventurous I’ll go for something more exotic.</li><li>Computers: (of a value, action, etc.) preset or preselected, unless the user or programmer gives other input or instruction: The default contrast setting on this display is 50 percent.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb</strong></p><ul><li>(used without object) to fail to meet financial obligations, such as payments on a loan, or to account properly for money in one's care: After he defaulted twice, the bank foreclosed on the car.</li><li>to fail in fulfilling or satisfying an engagement, claim, or obligation: They said they would pick me up, but defaulted at the last minute.</li><li>Law: to fail to appear in court: One of the key witnesses defaulted.</li><li>Sports: to fail to participate in or complete a scheduled game, race, etc.: I only placed in that race because my chief rival defaulted.</li><li>to lose a scheduled game, race, etc., by default.</li><li>to behave or respond in a certain way automatically, habitually, or by preference (usually followed by to): It seems that in your relationships you default to being a caregiver instead of a partner.</li><li>Computers: (of a program or operating system) to assume a preset value or take a preselected action unless otherwise instructed by the user or programmer (usually followed by to): Your profile defaults to public unless you set the permissions to private.</li><li>(used with object) to fail to perform or pay: to default a debt.</li><li>to declare to be in default, especially legally: The judge defaulted the defendant.</li><li>Law: to lose by failure to appear in court.</li><li>Sports: to fail to compete in (a scheduled game, race, etc.).</li><li>to lose by default.</li></ul>