diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index cdbc991..e321c66 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@ For breaking changes, check [here](#breaking-changes).
 
 ## Unreleased
 
-- Fix #91: keyword options and hyphen options should not mix
+- Fix [#96](https://github.com/babashka/cli/issues/96): prevent false defaults from being removed/ignored
+- Fix [#91](https://github.com/babashka/cli/issues/91): keyword options and hyphen options should not mix
 
 ## v0.8.58 (2024-03-12)
 
diff --git a/src/babashka/cli.cljc b/src/babashka/cli.cljc
index 6bb0bef..c510553 100644
--- a/src/babashka/cli.cljc
+++ b/src/babashka/cli.cljc
@@ -197,8 +197,9 @@
                         (assoc aliases alias k)))
         require (update :require (fnil #(conj % k) #{}))
         validate (update :validate assoc k validate)
-        default (update :exec-args (fn [new-exec-args]
-                                     (assoc new-exec-args k (get exec-args k default))))))
+        (some? default) (update :exec-args
+                                (fn [new-exec-args]
+                                  (assoc new-exec-args k (get exec-args k default))))))
     {}
     spec)))
 
@@ -560,8 +561,8 @@
                    (when (:ref columns)
                      (if ref ref ""))
                    (when (or (:default-desc columns)
-                             (:default columns))
-                     (str (or default-desc default "")))
+                             (some? (:default columns)))
+                     (str (or default-desc (str default) "")))
                    (when (:desc columns)
                      (if desc desc ""))]))
           (if (map? spec)
diff --git a/test/babashka/cli_test.cljc b/test/babashka/cli_test.cljc
index a7d1405..fe2fa1a 100644
--- a/test/babashka/cli_test.cljc
+++ b/test/babashka/cli_test.cljc
@@ -203,10 +203,11 @@
             :exec-args {:from :edn, :to :json, :paths ["src" "test"]}}
            (cli/spec->opts spec nil)))
     (is (= (str/trim "
-  -p, --pretty          Pretty-print output.
+  -p, --pretty false    Pretty-print output.
       --paths  src test Paths of files to transform.
 ") (str/trim
     (cli/format-opts {:spec [[:pretty {:desc "Pretty-print output."
+                                       :default false
                                        :alias :p}]
                              [:paths {:desc "Paths of files to transform."
                                       :coerce []