Noun

(en noun)

(finance) The condition of failing to meet an obligation.

He failed to make payments on time and is now in default .

You may cure this default by paying the full amount within a week.

(electronics, computing) the original software programming settings as set by the factory

A loss incurred by failing to compete.

The team's three losses include one default .

A selection made in the absence of an alternative.

''The man became the leader of the group as a default .

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=December 15 , author=Felicity Cloake , title=How to cook the perfect nut roast , work=Guardian citation , page= , passage=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.}}

(often, attributive) A value used when none has been given; a tentative value or standard that is presumed.

If you don't specify a number of items, the default is 1.

(legal) The failure of a defendant to appear and answer a summons and complaint.

(obsolete) A failing or failure; omission of that which ought to be done; neglect to do what duty or law requires.

This evil has happened through the governor's default .

(obsolete) Fault; offence; wrong act.

* Spenser

And pardon craved for his so rash default .

* Alexander Pope

regardless of our merit or default

Noun

(en noun)

An action, state of mind, or object one has an obligation to perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another.

* 1589 , (William Shakespeare), Henry IV, Part I , act 1, sc. 3,

Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt

Of this proud king, who studies day and night

To answer all the debt he owes to you

Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.

* 1850 , (Nathaniel Hawthorne), (The Scarlet Letter) , ch. 14,

This long debt of confidence, due from me to him, whose bane and ruin I have been, shall at length be paid.

The state or condition of owing something to another.

Money that one person or entity owes or is required to pay to another, generally as a result of a loan or other financial transaction.

* 1919 , (Upton Sinclair), Jimmie Higgins , ch. 15,

Bolsheviki had repudiated the four-billion-dollar debt which the government of the Tsar had contracted with the bankers.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}

(legal) An action at law to recover a certain specified sum of money alleged to be due.

(Burrill)