defaultcaptive
/dɪˈfɔːltˌkæptɪv/nounVerified NewAn employee whose pension rate, fund choice, and contribution level were set by auto-enrollment and never revisited by the person they belong to.
The default chose sensibly enough, but it chose once, and it chose for everyone. Decades later the captive discovers that the most consequential financial decision of their career was made by a checkbox they never read.
Etym. — default + captive — held by a setting rather than a chain.
Novelty check: NEW · checked 2026-11-08
review evidence: wordstoreview/review-batch-3-05-money.md
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Method: Editorial batch review — per-word exact-form web search (WebSearch/Tavily) per docs/REVIEW-criteria.md §2