DEFAULTER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does defaulter mean? 

• DEFAULTER (noun)
  The noun DEFAULTER has 3 senses:

1. someone who fails to make a required appearance in court

2. someone who fails to meet a financial obligation

3. a contestant who forfeits a match

  Familiarity information: DEFAULTER used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEFAULTER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who fails to make a required appearance in court

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("defaulter" is a kind of...):

absentee (one that is absent or not in residence)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who fails to meet a financial obligation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

deadbeat; defaulter

Hypernyms ("defaulter" is a kind of...):

debitor; debtor (a person who owes a creditor; someone who has the obligation of paying a debt)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "defaulter"):

deadbeat dad (a father who willfully defaults on his obligation to provide financial support for his offspring)

Derivation:

default (fail to pay up)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A contestant who forfeits a match

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("defaulter" is a kind of...):

contestant (a person who participates in competitions)

 Context examples 

Somebody broke down in a piece of knitting, and no one but Sophy was able to put the defaulter in the right direction.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I started, or rather (for like other defaulters, I like to lay half the blame on ill fortune and adverse circumstances) was thrust on to a wrong tack at the age of one-and-twenty, and have never recovered the right course since: but I might have been very different; I might have been as good as you—wiser—almost as stainless.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)