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verb
Default  v. t.  
1.
To fail to perform or pay; to be guilty of neglect of; to omit; as, to default a dividend. "What they have defaulted towards him as no king."
2.
(Law) To call a defendant or other party whose duty it is to be present in court, and make entry of his default, if he fails to appear; to enter a default against.
3.
To leave out of account; to omit. (Obs.) "Defaulting unnecessary and partial discourses."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Default" Quotes from Famous Books



... as she turned before her cheval-glass, might have belied her declaration to her mother, a little while before, that she was indifferent to Mr. Keith, and might even have given some comfort to the anxious young man in the drawing-room below, who, in default of books, was examining the pictures with such interest. He had never seen such a ...
— Gordon Keith • Thomas Nelson Page

... immortally as our own fathers at Bunker Hill and Saratoga. "There ought to be no pariahs," says John Stuart Mill, "in a full grown and civilized nation; no persons disqualified except through their own default.... Every one is degraded, whether aware of it or not, when other people, without consulting him, take upon themselves unlimited power to regulate his destiny." "No arrangement of the suffrage, therefore, can be permanently satisfactory in which any person or class is peremptorily ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... Boards they sometimes contrived to exact the whole sum from their colleagues, and to escape payment themselves. At the same time the duties of the several Boards and their members were not allocated with sufficient precision to enable the responsibility to be brought home in case of default; and the nominal Twelve Hundred had fallen to a much smaller number, on whom the burden accordingly fell with undue weight. Demosthenes' proposal provided for the distribution of the responsibility of equipping the vessels and providing the funds, in the most detailed manner, ...
— The Public Orations of Demosthenes, volume 1 • Demosthenes

... strength and financial stability of their native land waited for the reaction which was bound to follow when some of the countries into which we poured capital so freely, began to find a difficulty in paying the interest; and just before the war this reaction began to happen, in consequence of the default in Mexico and the financial embarrassments of Brazil. Mexico had shown that the political stability which investors had believed it to have achieved was a very thin veneer and a series of revolutions had ...
— International Finance • Hartley Withers

... are subdivisions of illnesses into crimes and misdemeanours as with offences amongst ourselves—a man being punished very heavily for serious illness, while failure of eyes or hearing in one over sixty-five, who has had good health hitherto, is dealt with by fine only, or imprisonment in default of payment. But if a man forges a cheque, or sets his house on fire, or robs with violence from the person, or does any other such things as are criminal in our own country, he is either taken to a hospital ...
— Erewhon • Samuel Butler

... my own case, he stated that it could be easily remedied if we ascertained by careful experiments what metallic substance would specifically influence my nervous system. He unhesitatingly recommended me, in case of very violent attacks, to take laudanum, and in default of that poison he seemed to consider valerian ...
— My Life, Volume II • Richard Wagner

... man-at-arms against Osberne. Short is the story of this course; for Sir Godrick and the Fish brake their spears, but in such wise that the Castle-knight lost his stirrups, and it went but a little but that he fell to field. As for Osberne, he played so warily that he set his spear-point in the default of the long man's defence just where arm joins shoulder, and the spear went through and through him, and he fell to the earth most grievously hurt. Therewith Osberne, who must needs let his spear fall, took a short ax from his saddle-bow (for he ...
— The Sundering Flood • William Morris

... put in at any port they liked, or stop at any island they wished to see; and, moreover, he swore to defend them with his men against enemies of every kind, and to land them safely at Ansina, or suffer death in default. ...
— Yussuf the Guide - The Mountain Bandits; Strange Adventure in Asia Minor • George Manville Fenn

... dwelling under the subtropical South African sun. Thus, apple-brandy, and peach liqueur, "Old Squareface," in the squat, four-sided bottles beloved no less by Dutchman and Afrikander, American and Briton, Paddy from Cork, and Heinrich from the German Fatherland, than by John Chinkey—in default of arrack—and the swart and woolly-headed descendant of Ham, may be signified ...
— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves

... music seems to be universal among all classes in Central America, especially among the Ladinos or mixed population. And it is scarcely possible to find a house, down to the meanest hut, that does not possess a violin or guitar, or, in default of these, a mandolin, on which one or more of its inmates are able to perform with considerable skill, and often with taste and feeling. The violin, however, is esteemed most highly, and its fortunate possessor cherishes it above wife or children, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 30, April, 1860 • Various

... him beyond a certain point. Up to that she understood everything. Her admirable intelligence could not take her beyond it: she needed a heart, or in default of that the thing which could give the illusion of one for a time: love. She understood Christophe's criticism of people and things: it amused her and seemed to her true enough: she had thought much the same herself. But what she did not understand was that such ideas might have ...
— Jean-Christophe, Vol. I • Romain Rolland

... is the "second finest picture in the world. If this were so one would certainly here in Rome, where such institutions are convenient, retire into the very nearest convent; with such a world one would have a standing quarrel. And yet this sport of destiny is an interesting case, in default of being an interesting painter, and I would take a moderate walk, in most moods, to see one of his pictures. He is so supremely good an example of effort detached from inspiration and school- merit divorced from spontaneity, ...
— Italian Hours • Henry James

... Trencher-chapelaine; Some willing man, that might instruct his sons, And that would stand to good conditions. First, that he lie upon the truckle-bed, While his young master lieth o'er his head; Second, that he do, upon no default, Never to sit above the salt; Third, that he never change his trencher twise; Fourth, that he use all common courtesies, Sit bare at meales, and one half rise and wait; Last, that he never his young master beat, But he must aske his mother to define How manie jerks she would his breech should line; ...
— Notes & Queries 1850.01.12 • Various

... looked, behold, he caught sight of an earthen pan lying arsy-versy upon its mouth; so he raised it from the ground and found under it a horse's tail, freshly cut off and the blood oozing from it; whereby he knew that the Cook adulterated his meat with horseflesh. When he discovered this default, he rejoiced therein and washing his hands, bowed his head and went out; and when the Kitchener saw that he went and gave him naught, he cried out, saying, "Stay, O pest, O burglar!" So the Larrikin stopped and said to him, "Dost thou cry out upon me and ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

... at each other. Lady Runnybroke put up her eyeglass in default of ostrich feathers, and said didactically, "I'm sure Mr. Atherly is very much in earnest, and sincerely devoted to his work. And in a man of his wealth and position here it's most estimable. My dear," she said, getting up and moving towards Mrs. Lascelles, "we were just saying how ...
— Tales of Trail and Town • Bret Harte

... to watch precocious children of twelve aping their elders. One feels all the time that the whole performance scarcely rises above an exhibition of highly-trained cats or monkeys, and that the poor mites ought all to be in bed long ago. Nevertheless, this dreary theatre was, in default of anything better, visited again and again by British officers and others. A friend of mine in the Guards told me with a sigh that he had actually watched the performances of these accomplished infants for no less than ...
— With Methuen's Column on an Ambulance Train • Ernest N. Bennett

... had his eye keenly set on the scene of his future ministration, and was aware of Grimes's default almost as soon as that man with his myrmidons had left the ground. He at once went to Grimes with heavy denunciations, with threats of the Marquis, and with urgent explanation as to the necessity of instant work. But Grimes was obdurate. ...
— The Vicar of Bullhampton • Anthony Trollope

... visible privy Parts of a Man, only a Slit, through which the Hermaphrodite makes Water. This Cavity is deeper or shallower, according to the plenty or default of Matter employ'd for the forming of it, yet one may easily find the Bottom of it with one's Finger. The Terms never flow by this way, and this kind of Hermaphrodite is a true Man as well as the two others above mention'd; for these sorts of Hermaphrodites become Boys, about ...
— Tractus de Hermaphrodites • Giles Jacob

... medicine, and canon and civil law, in the convent of Santo Domingo would be an improper and absurd proceeding, as they have no teachers who are acquainted with the first principles of these sciences, in default of which there could be but poor instruction, whereas the law requires that the teachers thereof be very learned, besides being endowed with singular talents and qualifications. As the matter is well and ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXXVI, 1649-1666 • Various

... the Indians; that is, it is highly criminal and infamous to steal from each other. Thieves are compelled to restore what they have stolen, or to make satisfactory amends to the injured party; in their default, their nearest relations are obliged to make up the loss. If the thief, after sufficient warning, continues his bad practices, he is disowned by his nation, and any one may put him to death the next time he is caught in the act of stealing, ...
— Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 (of 3) • James Athearn Jones

... flocks of visitors are not provided with an official bellwether, but are left to browse at discretion upon the local antiquities. It happened in this manner that, in default of another informant, Bessie Alden, who on doubtful questions was able to suggest a great many alternatives, found herself again applying for intellectual assistance to Lord Lambeth. But he again assured her that he was utterly helpless ...
— An International Episode • Henry James

... you think, my daughter, that that was proper? Though you have been educating your mind in this fatal way, how is it that your good sense and your intellect did not, in default of modesty, step in and show you that by acting as you did you were throwing yourself at a man's head. To think that my daughter, my only remaining child, should lack pride and delicacy! Oh, Modeste, you made your father pass two hours in hell when he ...
— Modeste Mignon • Honore de Balzac

... the domestic slave trade with that of the foreign traffic, which, at that time, was in the law considered piracy. Arrested, tried, and convicted of libel, although the facts were proven, Garrison was incarcerated in the Baltimore jail, April 17, 1830, in default of a fine of $50 with $50 costs. Undaunted in his captivity, he continued to write his protest against slavery and to record in verse his feelings. His famous sonnet, "The Immortal Mind," was written ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 6 of 8 • Various

... reason exists why, in default of a family with a crest, one should not decide to be a crest founder. The only point is that the crest should not pretend to be something it is not—a ...
— How to Write Letters (Formerly The Book of Letters) - A Complete Guide to Correct Business and Personal Correspondence • Mary Owens Crowther

... the dado. Either way is good according to circumstances; the first with the tall hanging and the narrow frieze is fittest if your wall is to be covered with stuffs, tapestry, or panelling, in which case making the frieze a piece of delicate painting is desirable in default of such plaster-work as I have spoken of above; or even if the proportions of the room very much cry out for it, you may, in default of hand-painting, use a strip of printed paper, though this, I must say, is a makeshift of makeshifts. The division into dado, and wall hung from thence ...
— Hopes and Fears for Art • William Morris

... projects, in his handwriting, which an unlucky chance threw into their hands, as they plainly evinced his disposition towards them, carried their apprehension to the utmost pitch. In particular, they were alarmed by a secret family compact with Spain, by which, in default of heirs-male of his own body, Ferdinand bequeathed to that crown the kingdom of Bohemia, without first consulting the wishes of that nation, and without regard to its right of free election. The many enemies, too, which by his reforms in Styria that prince had provoked ...
— The History of the Thirty Years' War • Friedrich Schiller, Translated by Rev. A. J. W. Morrison, M.A.

... American Declaration of Independence find recognition among the Boers. Both in the Transvaal and in the Orange Free State a native is forbidden to hold land, and is not permitted to travel anywhere without a pass, in default of which he may be detained. (In the Free State, however, the sale of intoxicants to him is forbidden, and a somewhat similar law, long demanded by the mine-owners, has very recently been enacted in the Transvaal.) ...
— Impressions of South Africa • James Bryce

... as a shield against which others' grievances might be shattered. And in default of a more tangible one, he cited his heavily be-daughtered house. It was at dinner-time that he always seemed to realize the extent of his disaster. As he took his place at the head, his wrathful eye swept from ...
— The Madigans • Miriam Michelson

... Positivist, Communistic, Socialistic fraternity propose to draw upon Christian love to make up the default of this bankrupt human love; but Christian love only in its results, not in its foundations. They propose love for humanity alone, apart from love ...
— The Kingdom of God is within you • Leo Tolstoy

... a division and criticism of the various possible principles of morality that can be set up on the assumption of Heteronomy, and that have been put forward by human Reason in default of the required Critique of its pure use. Such, are either Empirical or Rational. The Empirical, embodying the principle of Happiness, are founded on (1) physical or (2) moral feeling; the ...
— Moral Science; A Compendium of Ethics • Alexander Bain

... is enacted of a man who suicided, "that the corpse be tied to a cart, dragged on a hurdle, head down, face to ground, {191} through the streets of the town, to be hung up by the feet, an object of derision, then cast into the river in default of a cesspool." Criminals who evade punishment by flight are to be hanged in effigy. Montreal citizens are ordered to have their chimneys cleaned every month and their houses provided with ladders. Also "the inhabitants of Montreal ...
— Canada: the Empire of the North - Being the Romantic Story of the New Dominion's Growth from Colony to Kingdom • Agnes C. Laut

... In default of pictures by the great Greek masters, an especial interest attaches to the work of humbler craftsmen of the brush. One class of such work exists in abundance—the painted decorations upon earthenware ...
— A History Of Greek Art • F. B. Tarbell

... her:—"Caterina, I implore thee, suffer me not to die for love of thee." Whereto the damsel forthwith responded:—"Nay, God grant that it be not rather that I die for love of thee." Greatly exhilarated and encouraged, Ricciardo made answer:—"'Twill never be by default of mine that thou lackest aught that may pleasure thee; but it rests with thee to find the means to save thy life and mine." Then said the damsel:—"Thou seest, Ricciardo, how closely watched I am, insomuch that I see not how 'twere possible ...
— The Decameron, Vol. II. • Giovanni Boccaccio

... keen temper, too, if irritated. Her brother, who loved her tenderly, was appalled at this fantastic preference. Leaving aside the degradation of an alliance with a nameless man, and the possible fact that his property, in default of heirs male, might pass into such a one's power, he had sense to comprehend Heathcliff's disposition: to know that, though his exterior was altered, his mind was unchangeable and unchanged. And he dreaded that mind: it revolted him: he shrank forebodingly from the idea of committing ...
— Wuthering Heights • Emily Bronte

... the rose. There were birds to watch; fish; ants; worms; hares or rabbits, as they darted across the distant pathway in the wood and so were gone: millions of living things to have an interest in, and lie in wait for, and clap hands and shout in memory of, when they had disappeared. In default of these, or when they wearied, there was the merry sunlight to hunt out, as it crept in aslant through leaves and boughs of trees, and hid far down—deep, deep, in hollow places—like a silver pool, where nodding branches seemed to bathe and sport; sweet scents ...
— Barnaby Rudge • Charles Dickens

... to miss a race; and he was conspicuous amongst the crowd in those mysterious purlieus where the plebeian bookmen, who are unworthy to enter the sacred precincts of Tattersall's, mostly do congregate, in utter defiance of the police. No one had ever heard the name of this man; but in default of any more particular cognomen, they had christened him the Major; because in his curt manners, his closely buttoned-up coat, tightly-strapped trousers, and heavy moustache, there was a certain military flavour, which ...
— Henry Dunbar - A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... man, and never speaking to the wrong woman, all agreed that the Ladies St. Maurice had fairly won their coronets. Their sister Caroline was much younger; and although she did not promise to develop so unblemished a character as themselves, she was, in default of another sister, to be ...
— The Young Duke • Benjamin Disraeli

... The accused man was followed to the court by a crowd of his friends, armed, it is said, with clubs, though this latter statement seems to be doubtful. When a sentence of four shillings' fine, or, in default of payment, thirty days' imprisonment, was imposed, the award was received in silence. But when the costs were adjudged to be twelve shillings and sixpence, there were murmurs. Some tumultuously advised the man not to pay. Some, believing the case involved ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 102, April, 1866 • Various

... he will spend a month with his father and a month with me. In this way, there will be no contest. Dudevant will return to Paris very soon, without making any opposition, and the Court will pronounce the separation in default."(23) ...
— George Sand, Some Aspects of Her Life and Writings • Rene Doumic

... sheep on the hillside; the cities with their churches and schools, hotels and warehouses, and the occupations of the busy people. While I am communicating these things, Helen manifests intense interest; and, in default of words, she indicates by gestures and pantomime her desire to learn more of her surroundings and of the great forces which are operating everywhere. In this way, she learns countless new expressions ...
— Story of My Life • Helen Keller

... wife wich hed bin married by a chaplin uv the Bureau, or by any one else, shood be employed on the same plantashen, and also no father or mother and child. Sich ez violated these ordinances shood be arrested by anybody, and fined; and in default uv payment uv the fine and costs, shood be sold to the person who wood take his or her labor for the shortest number uv years, and pay the fine and costs aforesed. "Ez a conservative," sed the Deekin, ...
— "Swingin Round the Cirkle." • Petroleum V. Nasby

... too, had stumbled into the trap which was Limbo, and had had a very definite part in breaking up that devilish installation, the crew of the Solar Queen had claimed as their reward the trading rights of Traxt Cam in default of legal heirs. And so here they were on Sargol with the notes left by Cam as their guide, and as much lore concerning the Salariki as was known crammed ...
— Plague Ship • Andre Norton

... diacritic does not appear directly above the letter—or if the apostrophes and quotation marks in this paragraph appear as garbage, make sure your text reader's "character set" or "file encoding" is set to Unicode (UTF-8). You may also need to change the default font. As a last resort, use the latin-1 version ...
— A Brief History of the English Language and Literature, Vol. 2 (of 2) • John Miller Dow Meiklejohn

... document as if it had been a Gila monster on toast. He saw such words as "State of Pennsylvania, County of Rockoil, ss," and "Default will be taken against you, and judgment rendered thereon," and sundry dates and figures. Instinctively he turned to ...
— Double Trouble - Or, Every Hero His Own Villain • Herbert Quick

... Thibetians invariably pass to the right hand of these piles of stones and other monuments, but for what reason he was unable to inform me.[25] Having finished his stock of information, which I received thank-fully in default of better, he told me, with delightful coolness, that it was the proper thing for me to give him a bottle of brandy for the Kardar, and that it would be necessary to send also a corkscrew with the bottle, to enable him to get at it! The ...
— Diary of a Pedestrian in Cashmere and Thibet • by William Henry Knight

... country, but it is strait, that is to say narrow, for they may not enlarge it toward the desert, for default of water. And the country is set along upon the river of Nile; by as much as that river may serve by floods or otherwise, that when it floweth it may spread through the country, so is the country large of length. For there it raineth not but little in that country, and ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Volume 19 - Travel and Adventure • Various

... conditions of blessedness so as to reinstate an exile of heaven. To imagine that God will, in consideration of some technical device, place in heaven a man whose character fits him for hell, or, in default of that conventionality, place in hell a man whose character fits him for heaven, is to represent him as acting on an eccentric whim. And surely every one who has a worthy idea of God must find it much easier to believe that men have mixed mythological dreams with their religion, than ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger

... make good time," Old Dut urged. "You don't want to start the season by being late, do you. Besides the North Grammar boys might then claim the game by default." ...
— The Grammar School Boys in Summer Athletics • H. Irving Hancock

... (1713). They still preserved in their municipal institutions the old style of republicas derived from the civitates and respublicae of ancient Rome. This kind of independence and autonomy lasted unchallenged until the death of Ferdinand VII. in 1833, when, in default of male heirs, his brother Don Carlos claimed the throne, confirmed the Basque fueros, and raised the standard of revolt against his niece, Isabel II. A seven years' war followed, in which an English legion under Sir ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 - "Banks" to "Bassoon" • Various

... intense perceivers re-creates itself out of the veriest dust and dross of humanity. Like Shelley's 'Cloud,' my illusion may change, but it cannot die. Now I am in a state of mind when I am willing to let everything go by default—everything except my last illusion, that I can never let myself out to anyone. To Marie—and to you—and one or two others—I have been sorely tempted to lay myself out—but not even the moon can seduce me to reveal myself. My dead and buried ...
— An Anarchist Woman • Hutchins Hapgood

... citizens and yeomen of Holland. "The members of the States dare not but be Queen Elizabeth's," continued the Earl, "for by the living God! if there should fall but the least unkindness through their default, the people would kill them. All sorts of people, from highest to lowest, assure themselves, now that they have her Majesty's good countenance, to beat all the Spaniards out of their country. Never was there people in such jollity as these be. I could be content to lose a limb, could her Majesty ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... find us shelter for the night. In the room allotted us there were three immense kneading-troughs and two bread-boards to match, for a grist-mill and bakery were connected with the establishment. In default of beds, we made use of this furniture. Five wiser men have slept in better berths, but few have slept more soundly than we did in the ...
— The Andes and the Amazon - Across the Continent of South America • James Orton

... whom he is bound by an obligation that is becoming irksome. The old duenna has been casting amatory glances in Figaro's direction, and has a hold on him in the shape of a written obligation to marry her in default of repayment of a sum of money borrowed in a time of need. She enlists Bartolo as adviser, and he agrees to lay the matter before the Count. Somewhat early, but naturally enough in the case of the conceited ...
— A Book of Operas - Their Histories, Their Plots, and Their Music • Henry Edward Krehbiel

... to take it back. He had no witnesses, and the Court was in something of a hurry as it had to prepare a speech that afternoon to be delivered in the evening on the "Beauties of Eternal Justice," and so it was adjudged that in default of $500 bail the said William Johnson be committed to the County Jail of Albany County in said Territory, there to await the action of the Grand Jury for the succeeding term of the District Court for the ...
— Nye and Riley's Wit and Humor (Poems and Yarns) • Bill Nye

... Bread-baskets and cake-dishes discharged their contents like catapults against the panelling of the cabin doors, while jugs of condensed milk—which was used not from any special liking for the article, but through default of there being a cow on board—were emptied most impartially on to the shirt-fronts and dresses of the gentlemen and ladies who unfortunately sat opposite ...
— The Wreck of the Nancy Bell - Cast Away on Kerguelen Land • J. C. Hutcheson

... sends second ultimatum to Belgium, threatening force, and offers Great Britain not to annex Belgian territory. Great Britain demands that Germany respect Belgian neutrality, and in default of ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume I (of 8) - Introductions; Special Articles; Causes of War; Diplomatic and State Papers • Various

... comfortable to his readers. For wisdom, it is not absolutely necessary that he have it, but in its way it is as good a property as any: used with judgment, indeed, it does more to keep an essay sweet and fresh than almost any other quality. And in default of wisdom—which, to be sure, it is not given to every man, much less to every essayist, to entertain—he need have no scruples about using whatever common sense is his; for common sense is a highly respectable commodity, and never fails of a wide and eager circle of buyers. A knowledge of men ...
— Views and Reviews - Essays in appreciation • William Ernest Henley

... to various birds of passage, to impecunious students, who like "Father Goriot" and Mlle. Michonneau, could only muster forty-five francs a month to pay for their board and lodging. Mme. Vauquer had little desire for lodgers of this sort; they ate too much bread, and she only took them in default of better. ...
— Father Goriot • Honore de Balzac

... archiepiscopal church, and announced that Don Antonio de Noronha was deposed from the dignity of viceroy, to whom Antonio Moniz Barreto was immediately to succeed with the title of governor. By another order, Gonzalo Pereyra was appointed to the government of Malacca, in default of whom Don Leonis Pereyra was substituted, and accordingly succeeded as the ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VI - Early English Voyages Of Discovery To America • Robert Kerr

... areas of Indiana. Pennsylvania and Ohio sent a similar type of people to the area adjacent to those States. In Iowa a stream combined of the Southern element and of these settlers sought the wooded tributaries of the Mississippi in the southeastern part of the State. In default of legal authority, in this early period, they formed squatter governments and land associations, comparable to the action of the Massachusetts men who in the first quarter of the seventeenth century "squatted" in the ...
— The Frontier in American History • Frederick Jackson Turner

... Yes; but even if there should be information, citation, decree, and verdict obtained by surprise, default, and contumacy, I have still the alternative of a conflict of jurisdiction to gain time, and a resort to the means of nullity that will be found ...
— Monsieur de Pourceaugnac • Moliere

... looked upon him as a tyrant and plunderer. His disastrous administration of Languedoc was described as "one long fte where the excess of expenditure was rivalled only by the excess of scandal." If the marmousets could have hanged him they would. In default they hanged his treasurer. ...
— Illuminated Manuscripts • John W. Bradley

... was the daughter of the chief's brother, and brought her husband as her dowry a long, narrow strip of land richly covered with countless thousands of coco-palms, and it was from these groves of coconuts that Harry had earned most of the bright silver dollars, which, in default of a strong box, he had headed up in a small beef keg and buried under the gravelled floor ...
— Rodman The Boatsteerer And Other Stories - 1898 • Louis Becke

... to prevent (you from taking them). But if the captain should call, run to the ship and leave all those things without regard to them. But if you are old, do not even go far from the ship, lest when you are called you make default. ...
— A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus With the Encheiridion • Epictetus

... this mandate, the term of which, in default of agreement to the contrary, cannot exceed thirty days, the States at variance cease from all direct communication on the subject of the dispute, which is regarded as referred exclusively to the mediating Powers. ...
— The League of Nations and its Problems - Three Lectures • Lassa Oppenheim

... Washing-day was a perfect feast for it, for then it would banquet on the shirt-sleeves and stockings that dangled from the clothes-line, and simply glut itself with the family linen and cotton. In default of these dainties, Nanny would gladly eat a chip-hat; she was not proud; she would eat a split-basket, if there was nothing else at hand. Once she got up on the kitchen-table, and had a perfect orgy ...
— A Boy's Town • W. D. Howells

... this may stand as offered in the first edition. Miss Lister prefers to enter it, banded spores and all, with the comatrichas, on account of color, size and occasional default (?) of surface net. ...
— The North American Slime-Moulds • Thomas H. (Thomas Huston) MacBride

... such, and commanded all masters everywhere to emancipate their slaves. We could have driven a coach-and-four neither through, nor around, any such express prohibition. It is indeed only in consequence of the default, or omission, of such precept or command, that the abolitionist appeals to what he calls the principles of the gospel. If he had only one such precept,—if he had only one such precise and pointed prohibition, he might then, and he would, most ...
— Cotton is King and The Pro-Slavery Arguments • Various

... word "labour" being appropriated by common custom to the manual task-work of the majority, some other technical word must be found to designate the directive faculties as applied to productive industry. The word here chosen, in default of a better, ...
— A Critical Examination of Socialism • William Hurrell Mallock

... pursuit and of the extent of his acquaintance with European literature. Moreover, the merit of having by these translations made Shakspeare and Calderon more widely known and better appreciated in Germany would, in default of any other claim, alone entitle him to take high rank in the ...
— Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature • August Wilhelm Schlegel

... related to the Allosaurus. In Trachodon (see p. 94), we know that the skin bore neither feathers nor overlapping scales but had a curiously patterned mosaic of tiny polygonal plates and was thin and quite flexible. Some such type of skin as this, in default of better evidence, we may ...
— Dinosaurs - With Special Reference to the American Museum Collections • William Diller Matthew

... convinced that her own triumph was at hand. She was beginning to realise that a declared understanding was less exciting than an incipient love affair; the thirst for fresh conquest was upon her, and in default of any more interesting prey, she determined to turn her attention to Mr Vanburgh, and raked her silly little head to ...
— A Houseful of Girls • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... insured fails to meet his premiums, the company is compelled to pay on the policy at his death a sum equivalent to that which he paid before default. ...
— Business Hints for Men and Women • Alfred Rochefort Calhoun

... commissioners agreeing." While they were not called upon to deliver a formal opinion in the case, the American agent was advised "that the commissioners were unanimous in the conclusion that the conflagration which destroyed Columbia was not to be ascribed to either the intention or default of either the Federal or ...
— Historical Essays • James Ford Rhodes

... brother of mine was in all respects a remarkable boy. Haughty he was, aspiring, immeasurably active; fertile in resources as Robinson Crusoe; but also full of quarrel as it is possible to imagine; and, in default of any other opponent, he would have fastened a quarrel upon his own shadow for presuming to run before him when going westwards in the morning, whereas, in all reason, a shadow, like a dutiful child, ought to keep deferentially ...
— Autobiographic Sketches • Thomas de Quincey

... water, poison, wager of battle, or the like, of the innocence or guilt of persons in appeal thereby to the judgment of God in default of other evidence, on the superstitious belief that by means of it God would interfere to acquit the innocent and condemn the guilty, a test very often had recourse to among savage or ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood

... person to murder? Oh, no: he had suited himself with a victim some time before, viz., an old and very intimate friend. For he seems to have laid it down as a maxim—that the best person to murder was a friend; and, in default of a friend, which is an article one cannot always command, an acquaintance: because, in either case, on first approaching his subject, suspicion would be disarmed: whereas a stranger might take alarm, and find in the very countenance of his murderer elect a warning summons ...
— The Notebook of an English Opium-Eater • Thomas de Quincey

... inhabitants of the TERREMARES have been called, were descended from the people who built the pile dwellings of Switzerland, and that, faithful to the traditions of their race, they hollowed out ponds in default of natural lakes. If this were so, Italy must have been peopled with a race that came over the Alps.[126] Who or what this race was can only be matter of conjecture. It cannot, however, have been the Ligures, ...
— Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples • The Marquis de Nadaillac

... stipulated weekly wage. The rates of hire varied, of course, with the slave's capabilities and the conditions of business in their trades. The practice brought friction sometimes between slaves and owners when wages were in default. An instance of this was published in a Charleston advertisement of 1800 announcing the auction of a young carpenter and saying as the reason of the sale that he had absconded because of a deficit in his wages.[36] Whether ...
— American Negro Slavery - A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime • Ulrich Bonnell Phillips

... as strangers and aliens. Among the Romans agens or lineage was united by a common name and domestic rites; the various cognomens or surnames of Scipio, or Marcellus, distinguished from each other the subordinate branches or families of the Cornelian or Claudian race: the default of the agnats, of the same surname, was supplied by the larger denomination of gentiles; and the vigilance of the laws maintained, in the same name, the perpetual descent of religion and property. A similar principle dictated the Voconian ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 4 • Edward Gibbon

... her black eyes, like those of a watchful crocodile, took the pleasure in the pantomime that all actors do to the very last in everything connected with the theatre. She cried 'brava' in tones that might reach Italy; she blew kisses to the actors in default of flowers. ...
— Jacqueline, Complete • (Mme. Blanc) Th. Bentzon

... from his relations with plausible De Lesseps, the magnificent Ismail borrowed in such a wholesale manner, for the Egyptian people and himself, that in time both were hopelessly in default to stony-hearted European creditors. Egyptian bonds were then quoted in London at about half their face value, and Britons held a major ...
— East of Suez - Ceylon, India, China and Japan • Frederic Courtland Penfield

... summit of the stake, just above his head. Those who believed in possession exclaimed that they were only a band of devils come to seek their master, but there were many who muttered that devils were not wont to assume such a form, and who persisted in believing that the doves had come in default of men to bear witness ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... that of Ferdinand and Isabella, at Medina del Campo, in 1499. In this edict they were commanded, under certain penalties, to become stationary in towns and villages, and to provide themselves with masters whom they might serve for their maintenance, or in default thereof, to quit the kingdom at the end of sixty days. No mention is made of the country to which they were expected to betake themselves in the event of their quitting Spain. Perhaps, as they are called Egyptians, it was concluded ...
— The Zincali - An Account of the Gypsies of Spain • George Borrow

... to denounce, in the strictest terms, the emptying of improper utensils on the same; and this, until the people had grown into the habitude of attending to the rules, gave rise to many pleas, and contentious appeals and bickerings, before the magistrates. Among others summoned before me for default, was one Mrs Fenton, commonly called the Tappit-hen, who kept a small change-house, not of the best repute, being frequented by young men, of a station of life that gave her heart and countenance to be bardy, even to the bailies. It happened that, by some inattention, she had, one ...
— The Provost • John Galt

... imprisonment his liege lady and rightful Sovereign, ROSALBA, Queen of Crim Tartary, and restore her to her royal throne: in default of which, I, Giglio, proclaim the said Padella sneak, traitor, humbug, usurper, and coward. I challenge him to meet me, with fists or with pistols, with battle-axe or sword, with blunderbuss or singlestick, alone or at the head of his army, on ...
— The Rose and the Ring • William Makepeace Thackeray

... the most inviting, being simply unbuttered bread and rather dry at that, seemed more delicious than ever before, but unfortunately there was not enough of it. However, as there seemed likely to be no more forthcoming, he concluded in default of breakfast to lie down under the tree for a few minutes before resuming his walk. Though he could not help wondering vaguely where his dinner was to come from, as that time was several hours distant, he wisely decided not to anticipate ...
— Paul Prescott's Charge • Horatio Alger

... ours—we hold a fair slice of it so far—is full of wonders and miracles and mysteries and marvels, and, in default, it is good to go up and down seeing and hearing tell of ...
— Letters of Travel (1892-1913) • Rudyard Kipling

... lives for her, or with her, were to conceal themselves along the coast, and ere the moon rose, make their way a-board. This they could easily effect under the thick darkness, and in so calm a night. There was not one who could not steer a plank, in quiet water, from Essex to Sheerness; and in default of that, they were all ...
— The Buccaneer - A Tale • Mrs. S. C. Hall

... Of nought so doubtful as of soul and will. O! hide the God still more! and make us see, Such as Lucretius drew, a God like thee: Wrapt up in self, a God without a thought, Regardless of our merit or default. Or that bright image[433] to our fancy draw, Which Theocles[434] in raptured vision saw, While through poetic scenes the genius roves, Or wanders wild in academic groves; 490 That Nature our society adores,[435] Where Tindal dictates, and ...
— Poetical Works of Pope, Vol. II • Alexander Pope

... his authority for the Spanish original of his Romance Muy Doloroso. In default of any definite information, it may be surmised that his fancy was caught by some broadside or chap-book which chanced to come into his possession, and that he made his translation without troubling himself about the origin or composition of the ballad. As it stands, ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron

... clasping her hands a little closer over his shoulder. Their conversations upon prospects generally ended in some such pleasantly erratic remarks. They never were tired of supposing that they were rich; and really, in default of being rich, it must be admitted that there is some consolation in being in a frame of mind which can derive happiness from ...
— Vagabondia - 1884 • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... the nature of your publication does not admit the introduction of woodcuts, which would have enabled me to present your readers with the best of all demonstrations for what I advance. In default of that I have endeavoured to point out the most compendious and accessible sources where the figures I refer to may be seen in engravings. But if any reader of "NOTES AND QUERIES" should not have an opportunity ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 69, February 22, 1851 • Various

... for them.[296] The Bechuanaland district of Cape Colony was the best ox-wagon country, but as this was occupied by the enemy there remained only the eastern parts of the Colony upon which to draw. In default of a general application of Martial Law, "commandeering" was not possible. Prices consequently ruled high, and at one time some doubt existed whether all demands could be met. By the middle of November, the steady influx of imported ...
— History of the War in South Africa 1899-1902 v. 1 (of 4) - Compiled by Direction of His Majesty's Government • Frederick Maurice

... Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Ferdinand and of Merit, and of the Imperial Order of the Crescent—by the name, stile, and title, of Baron Nelson of the Nile, and of Hilborough in his county of Norfolk: to hold, to him, and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten; and, in default of such issue, to his trusty and well-beloved Edmund Nelson, Clerk, Rector of Burnham Thorpe in his county of Norfolk, father of the said Horatio Viscount Nelson, and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten; and, in default of such issue, to the heirs male of the body of Susannah, the ...
— The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. II (of 2) • James Harrison

... In default of the consuls there was still some hope that Pompey might be induced to interfere, and Cicero sought an interview with him. Plutarch says that he slipped out by a back door to avoid seeing him; but Cicero's own account is that the interview was granted. "When I threw myself ...
— Roman life in the days of Cicero • Alfred J[ohn] Church

... believe, by the illustrious Stokes, that our idea of solid and liquid bodies is a necessary consequence of the intensity of gravity upon the earth. Upon a larger or smaller planet, a certain number of solid bodies would pass to a liquid state, or inversely. Let us return to the cyclostat. In default of gravity, centrifugal force gives us a means of realizing certain conditions that we would find in the laboratory of our magician. The cyclostat permits us to observe what is going on in that laboratory without ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 829, November 21, 1891 • Various

... tattered jerkin, and his legs, in default of stockings, were swathed in soiled bandages and cross-gartered from ankle to knee. He stood in a pair of wooden shoes, from one of which peeped forth some wisps of straw, introduced, no doubt, to make the footgear fit. He slouched and shuffled in his walk, and he was unspeakably dirty. ...
— St. Martin's Summer • Rafael Sabatini

... the owner of the hut, a cobbler who went every Sunday night to drink his pint of wine and smoke with Baas Cogez. The cobbler would grant no mercy. He was a harsh, miserly man, and loved money. He claimed in default of his rent every stick and stone, every pot and pan, in the hut, and bade Nello and Patrasche be out of ...
— Stories By English Authors: Germany • Various

... the widows of drowned mariners had been gradually relaxed during the last fifty years, and was now a dead letter; aged spinsters even, such as Aunt Butson, being received in default of applicants with better title. Also Sir George's father, having once on a time been called upon to depose a caretaker for ill-using the inmates, had replaced her by a gentlewoman; and thinking to safeguard them in future by increasing ...
— Shining Ferry • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... made no answer, and then Kate allowed the matter to drop. Alice made no answer, though she felt that she was allowing judgement to go against her by default in not doing so. She had intended to fight bravely, and to have maintained the excellence of her present position as the affianced bride of Mr Grey, but she felt that she had failed. She felt that she had, in some sort, acknowledged that the match was ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope

... command to kiss their brother went by default; she hurried her charges through the door to ...
— Once Aboard The Lugger • Arthur Stuart-Menteth Hutchinson

... the Government, and thus largely increase the demand for this stock. During nearly my first two years as Secretary of the Treasury, the public moneys were deposited by me in the State banks, secured by United States and State stocks, and there was no loss. Nor, indeed, was there any loss or default by any officer, agent, or employe of the Treasury Department during my entire term of four years, notwithstanding the large loans and ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3 No 2, February 1863 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... with a street in Venice, and friends of Antonio bemoan the reported loss of several of his ships at sea, which will cause his default and ruin, by the ...
— Shakspere, Personal Recollections • John A. Joyce

... enterprise is undertaken its promoters often expect to make the road not only supply the money for its construction but also give working capital in addition. This is done by the issue of mortgage bonds. Default in the payment of interest throws the road into the hands of a receiver. The securities immediately fall in value and are perhaps bought up by a syndicate of crafty speculators who are permitted to reorganise ...
— Up To Date Business - Home Study Circle Library Series (Volume II.) • Various

... of the dead, the object of their visit, and they went away without giving the colonel any inkling that his course had been seriously criticised. Nor was the meeting resumed after they left the house, even the mayor seeming content to let the matter go by default. ...
— The Colonel's Dream • Charles W. Chesnutt

... sat on the edge of the bed, in default of the one unbroken chair which their host kept for himself, as easier than a mattress to get up from suddenly, did not take sides for or against him in his theories of his discomfort. One of them glanced at the ...
— The Daughter of the Storage - And Other Things in Prose and Verse • William Dean Howells

... every day you must steal from other people's farms and fill this hamper to the full. If you do this I shall treat you well; but if you fail, this bundle of rods is reserved for your punishment." The god is then heartily treated to a sample of the walloping it should expect in case of default. When its help is needed in the store a similar temple is put up for it in a corner within, and its duty is then to protect the store from burglary, to replenish it by theft and to "draw" custom by a sort of personal magnetism. In either case it ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917 • Various

... will mean, I take it, the laying down of some requirement that the Plan for the Reduction of Armaments be formally ratified within a time stated by a certain number of States, including certain named States; in default whereof, the Council may and will declare the Plan for the Reduction of Armaments not to have been ...
— The Geneva Protocol • David Hunter Miller

... penalty for disobedience shall be a fine of ten dollars for the first offence, twenty for the second, thirty for the third, and so on; the fines to be sued and recovered before any justice of the peace in the county, and to be divided in equal parts between the informer and the poor; and in default of payment the offender shall be imprisoned for ten days in ...
— The Boy Trapper • Harry Castlemon

... altogether brotherly. "It's the only way you can escape us," he averred; and with that the dissolution proposal was suffered to go by default. ...
— Branded • Francis Lynde

... that I am descended by right line of blood coming from the good lord King Henry the Third, and through that right that God of his grace hath sent me with help of my kin and of my friends to recover it: the which realm was in point to be undone by default of governance and undoing of good laws." Whatever defects such a claim might present were more than covered by the solemn recognition of Parliament. The two Archbishops, taking the new sovereign by the hand, seated ...
— History of the English People, Volume III (of 8) - The Parliament, 1399-1461; The Monarchy 1461-1540 • John Richard Green

... American commerce in behalf of the ship-builders of Maine. If he were a judge, as a celebrated namesake of his once was, he would do it by hanging a majority of members of the House he had the honor of addressing. In default of that he wanted them to ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 9, May 28, 1870 • Various

... In default of Georges, then, d'Ache was the next best person to seize, and the First Consul appreciated this fact so keenly that he organised two brigades of picked soldiers and fifty dragoons. But they only served to escort poor sick Mme. d'Ache, her daughter Louise and their friend ...
— The House of the Combrays • G. le Notre

... have to go home to Anna, and confess that he was beaten by default. He would have to explain to her, as gently as he could, that the road which led to the end of the rainbow was closed to traffic. He would have to admit to her that as far as he could see, he was ...
— Rope • Holworthy Hall

... frescoed figures emerge in marble at others. Marvels of riches are lavished upon chapels and altars, which again are so burdened with bronze gilded or silver plated, and precious stones wrought and unwrought, that the soul, or if not the soul the taste, shrinks dismayed from them. Execution in default of inspiration has had its way to the last excess; there is nothing that it has not done to show what it can do; and all that it has done is a triumph of misguided skill and power. But it would be a mistake for the spectator ...
— Roman Holidays and Others • W. D. Howells

... "I know more than your name. Kenny sent me a letter of measures, spiritual, mental and physical that would turn Bertillon green with envy. If ever you default with all the foolish hearts in New York I'll turn you over to the police. And you'll ...
— Kenny • Leona Dalrymple

... a third of the infantry was absent. When the troops were withdrawn from the attack on Kissieberg not a few of them remained in the donga or under the krantzes on the hill side, while others appear to have held on to the ridge. By some extraordinary neglect or default nearly 600 men were left to their fate. No one seems to have missed them at the time and they were made prisoners of war without ...
— A Handbook of the Boer War • Gale and Polden, Limited

... sixty-two persons, who were designated by name, were required by the Executive Council to surrender themselves to some Judge of a Court, or Justice of the Peace, within a specified time, and abide trial for treason, or in default of appearance to stand attainted; and by an Act of a subsequent time, the estates of thirty-six other persons, who were also designated by name, and who had been previously attainted of treason, were declared ...
— The Loyalists of America and Their Times, Vol. 2 of 2 - From 1620-1816 • Edgerton Ryerson

... As his wife tells the story in her book, the old man was taken by a constable before a justice of the peace on a charge of performing the marriage service without any authority, and was fined $3000, and sentenced to the penitentiary in default of payment. Through the connivance of the constable, who had been a Mormon, the prisoner was allowed to leap out of a window, and he remained in hiding at New Portage until his family were ready to start for Missouri. The revelation ...
— The Story of the Mormons: • William Alexander Linn

... are in so many cases—namely, as but little better than our modern proof-sheets. And they should be dealt with accordingly by a modern critic; but only on one condition precedent: he must be Shakespeare's peer. In default of this we can only humbly erase here, and reverently suggest there, summoning to our aid all possible knowledge, lest in plucking up the tares we ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. XVII, No. 99, March, 1876 • Various

... order is on probation or not, the cessation of payments should automatically reopen the case. At present, in most courts, the order goes by default until the wife comes in to make another charge. This, through discouragement or fear of a beating from the man, she often neglects; with the result that the orders of the court mean little in ...
— Broken Homes - A Study of Family Desertion and its Social Treatment • Joanna C. Colcord

... will of a Being having power over nature. Therefore, all that Hume proved is, that we cannot believe in a miracle unless we believe in the power, and the will, of the Deity to interfere with existing causes by introducing new ones; and that, in default of such belief, not the most satisfactory evidence of our senses or of testimony can hinder us from holding a seeming miracle to be merely the result of some unknown natural cause. The argument of Dr. Campbell and others against Hume, however, is untenable, viz. that, as ...
— Analysis of Mr. Mill's System of Logic • William Stebbing

... our duty, as well to the private creditors, whose interests in this respect have been so solemnly intrusted to us by the late act of Parliament, as from regard to the debt due to the Company, to insist on a declaration, that, in the event of the failure of the security proposed, or in default of payment at the stipulated periods, we reserve to ourselves full right to demand of the Nabob such additional security, by assignment on his country, as shall be effectual for answering ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. III. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... things was a universal rejection of domestic service in all classes of American-born society. For a generation or two, there was, indeed, a sort of interchange of family strength,—sons and daughters engaging in the service of neighboring families, in default of a sufficient working force of their own, but always on conditions of strict equality. The assistant was to share the table, the family sitting-room, and every honor and attention that might be claimed by son or daughter. ...
— Household Papers and Stories • Harriet Beecher Stowe



Words linked to "Default" :   owe, choice, delinquency, fail, defaulter, neglect, default on, alternative, judgment by default, default judgement, option, default option, absence, default judgment, nonpayment, pay up, loss, payment, financial loss, nonremittal, judgement by default



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