diff --git a/scrapy/cmdline.py b/scrapy/cmdline.py
index 4601cebfc..6a172cbc6 100644
--- a/scrapy/cmdline.py
+++ b/scrapy/cmdline.py
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ def execute(argv=None, settings=None):
     cmd = cmds[cmdname]
     parser.usage = "scrapy %s %s" % (cmdname, cmd.syntax())
     parser.description = cmd.long_desc()
-    settings.defaults.update(cmd.default_settings)
+    settings.setdict(cmd.default_settings, priority='command')
     cmd.settings = settings
     cmd.add_options(parser)
     opts, args = parser.parse_args(args=argv[1:])