Default
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
The omission or failure to fulfill a duty, observe a promise, discharge an obligation, or perform an agreement.
In practice
Omission; neglecé or failure. When a defendant in an action at law omits to plead within the time ellowed him for that purpose, or fails to appear on the trial, he is said to make default, and the judgment entered in the former case is technically called a “judgment by default.”
3 BL Comm. 396; 1 Tidd, Pr. 562.