› FINANCE the fact of not paying interest or other money that is owed on time: Many experts say a default would raise interest rates in the future because the government would be seen as a higher-risk borrower. Any default on the interest payments will have serious consequences. Creditors are frequently obliged to terminate the consumer credit agreement because the debtor is in default.
› LAW the fact of not keeping to an agreement or contract: There will be a joint government review of the agreement if there is any default.
› IT the way that something will happen or appear automatically, especially on a computer, if you do not make any different choices: Checking this box means that your computer will now use this printer as the default. The default is to provide a statement monthly. This is the default setting, but you can change it by going to the Options menu. We recommend using the defaults that are already set.
by default › happening or done because no formal choice or decision has been made: The fear was that unless IAS was adopted, US accounting principles would become the world standard by default.