diff --git a/monitor.c b/monitor.c
index f4992505b1..373bb8d1c3 100644
--- a/monitor.c
+++ b/monitor.c
@@ -3696,7 +3696,7 @@ static void monitor_find_completion_by_table(Monitor *mon,
 {
     const char *cmdname;
     int i;
-    const char *ptype, *str, *name;
+    const char *ptype, *old_ptype, *str, *name;
     const mon_cmd_t *cmd;
     BlockBackend *blk = NULL;
 
@@ -3741,7 +3741,9 @@ static void monitor_find_completion_by_table(Monitor *mon,
             }
         }
         str = args[nb_args - 1];
-        while (*ptype == '-' && ptype[1] != '\0') {
+        old_ptype = NULL;
+        while (*ptype == '-' && old_ptype != ptype) {
+            old_ptype = ptype;
             ptype = next_arg_type(ptype);
         }
         switch(*ptype) {
@@ -4142,9 +4144,6 @@ QemuOptsList qemu_mon_opts = {
         },{
             .name = "chardev",
             .type = QEMU_OPT_STRING,
-        },{
-            .name = "default",  /* deprecated */
-            .type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
         },{
             .name = "pretty",
             .type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
diff --git a/qemu-doc.texi b/qemu-doc.texi
index 137f5814a8..56388b5b33 100644
--- a/qemu-doc.texi
+++ b/qemu-doc.texi
@@ -2628,15 +2628,6 @@ setting ``-machine kernel_irqchip=off''.
 The ``-no-kvm'' argument is now a synonym for setting
 ``-machine accel=tcg''.
 
-@subsection -mon default=on (since 2.4.0)
-
-The ``default'' option to the ``-mon'' argument is
-now ignored. When multiple monitors were enabled, it
-indicated which monitor would receive log messages
-from the various subsystems. This feature is no longer
-required as messages are now only sent to the monitor
-in response to explicitly monitor commands.
-
 @subsection -vnc tls (since 2.5.0)
 
 The ``-vnc tls'' argument is now a synonym for setting
diff --git a/vl.c b/vl.c
index 7a5554bc41..81724f5f17 100644
--- a/vl.c
+++ b/vl.c
@@ -2423,10 +2423,6 @@ static int mon_init_func(void *opaque, QemuOpts *opts, Error **errp)
     if (qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "pretty", 0))
         flags |= MONITOR_USE_PRETTY;
 
-    if (qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "default", 0)) {
-        error_report("option 'default' does nothing and is deprecated");
-    }
-
     chardev = qemu_opt_get(opts, "chardev");
     chr = qemu_chr_find(chardev);
     if (chr == NULL) {