Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Case

Case

(kās)
,
Noun.
[OF.
casse
, F.
caisse
(cf. It.
cassa
), fr. L.
capsa
chest, box, case, fr.
capere
to take, hold. See
Capacious
, and cf. 4th
Chase
,
Cash
,
Enchase
, 3d
Sash
.]
1.
A box, sheath, or covering;
as, a
case
for holding goods; a
case
for spectacles; the
case
of a watch; the
case
(capsule) of a cartridge; a
case
(cover) for a book
.
2.
A box and its contents; the quantity contained in a box;
as, a
case
of goods; a
case
of instruments
.
3.
(Print.)
A shallow tray divided into compartments or “boxes” for holding type.
Cases
for type are usually arranged in sets of two, called respectively the upper and the lower case. The
upper case
contains capitals, small capitals, accented and marked letters, fractions, and marks of reference: the
lower case
contains the small letters, figures, marks of punctuation, quadrats, and spaces.
4.
An inclosing frame; a casing;
as, a door
case
; a window
case
.
5.
(Mining)
A small fissure which admits water to the workings.
Knight.

Case

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Cased
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Casing
.]
1.
To cover or protect with, or as with, a case; to inclose.
The man who,
cased
in steel, had passed whole days and nights in the saddle.
Prescott.
2.
To strip the skin from;
as, to
case
a box
.
[Obs.]

Case

,
Noun.
[F.
cas
, fr. L.
casus
, fr.
cadere
to fall, to happen. Cf.
Chance
.]
1.
Chance; accident; hap; opportunity.
[Obs.]
By aventure, or sort, or
cas
.
Chaucer.
2.
That which befalls, comes, or happens; an event; an instance; a circumstance, or all the circumstances; condition; state of things; affair;
as, a strange
case
; a
case
of injustice; the
case
of the Indian tribes
.
In any
case
thou shalt deliver him the pledge.
Deut. xxiv. 13.
If the
case
of the man be so with his wife.
Matt. xix. 10.
And when a lady’s in the
case

You know all other things give place.
Gay.
You think this madness but a common
case
.
Pope.
I am in
case
to justle a constable,
Shakespeare
3.
(Med. & Surg.)
A patient under treatment; an instance of sickness or injury;
as, ten
cases
of fever
; also, the history of a disease or injury.
A proper remedy in hypochondriacal
cases
.
Arbuthnot.
4.
(Law)
The matters of fact or conditions involved in a suit, as distinguished from the questions of law; a suit or action at law; a cause.
Let us consider the reason of the
case
, for nothing is law that is not reason.
Sir John Powell.
Not one
case
in the reports of our courts.
Steele.
5.
(Gram.)
One of the forms, or the inflections or changes of form, of a noun, pronoun, or adjective, which indicate its relation to other words, and in the aggregate constitute its declension; the relation which a noun or pronoun sustains to some other word.
Case
is properly a
falling off
from the nominative or first state of word; the name for which, however, is now, by extension of its signification, applied also to the nominative.
J. W. Gibbs.
Cases other than the nominative are oblique cases. Case endings are terminations by which certain cases are distinguished. In old English, as in Latin, nouns had several cases distinguished by case endings, but in modern English only that of the possessive case is retained.
Syn. – Situation, condition, state; circumstances; plight; predicament; occurrence; contingency; accident; event; conjuncture; cause; action; suit.

Case

,
Verb.
I.
To propose hypothetical cases.
[Obs.]
Casing upon the matter.”
L'Estrange.

Webster 1828 Edition


Case

CASE

,
Noun.
1.
A covering, box or sheath; that which incloses or contains; as a case for knives; a case for books; a watch case; a printers case; a pillow case.
2.
The outer part of a building.
3.
A certain quantity; as a case of crown glass.
4.
A building unfurnished.

CASE

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To cover with a case; to surround with any material that shall inclose or defend.
2.
To put in a case or box.
3.
To strip off a case, covering, or the skin.

CASE

,
Noun.
Literally, that which falls, comes, or happens; an event. Hence, the particular state, condition, or circumstances that befall a person, or in which he is placed; as, make the case your own; this is the case with my friend; this is his present case.
2.
The state of the body, with respect to health or disease; as a case of fever; he is in a consumptive case; his case is desperate.
To be in good case, is to be fat, and this phrase is customarily abridged, to be in case; applied to beasts, but not to men, except in a sense rather ludicrous.
3.
A question; a state of facts involving a question for discussion or decision; as, the lawyer stated the case.
4.
A cause or suit in court; as, the case was tried at the last term. In this sense, case is nearly synonymous with cause, whose primary sense is nearly the same.
5.
In grammar, the inflection of nouns, or a change of termination, to express a difference of relation in the word to others, or to the thing represented. The variation of nouns and adjectives is called declension; both case and declension signifying, falling or leaning from the first state of the word. Thus, liber is a book; libri, of a book; libro, to a book. In other words, case denotes a variation in the termination of a noun, to show how the noun acts upon the verb with which it is connected, or is acted upon by it, or by an agent. The cases, except the nominative, are called oblique cases.
In case, is a phrase denoting condition or supposition; literally, in the event or contingency; if it should so fall out or happen.
Put the case, suppose the event, or a certain state of things.
Action on the case, in law, is an action in which the whole cause of complaint is set out in the writ.