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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.

Definition 2024

Case

Case

See also: case, CASE, casé, cáse, cåse, and cåsĕ

English

Noun

Case

  1. (grammar) abstract feature of a noun phrase that determines its function in a sentence, such as a grammatical case and a position.
    • 1988, Frederick J. Newmeyer, Linguistic Theory: Foundations
      The basic principle governing case is:
      (20) The Case filter:
      A lexicalized NP must bear a Case feature in S-structure.
      ‘Case’ with a capital C is here understood not as morphologically marked case, but as an abstract feature which will be present even in languages such as Swahili or Chinese which lack case marking on NPs (it is usually assumed however, that Case will be congruent with morphological case where the latter is present).
    • 1993, Anders Holmberg, Urpo Nikanne, Case and Other Functional Categories in Finnish Syntax
      When we have clitic doubling constructions (with both a full NP and a clitic), the NP needs a dummy Case marker in order to get Case, as its “normal” Case is absorbed by the clitic, otherwise it will be ruled out by the Case Filter. It must be stressed that ‘Case’ here is abstract Case (written with capital C), a licencing requirement making arguments visible for θ-marking, and not morphological case.

Luxembourgish

Etymology

Borrowing from French case.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kaːs/
    • Rhymes: -aːs

Noun

Case f ‎(plural Casen)

  1. compartment, pigeonhole
  2. a printed box or square (e.g. on a board game)

case

case

See also: CASE, Case, casé, cáse, cåse, and cåsĕ

English

Noun

case ‎(plural cases)

  1. An actual event, situation, or fact.
    For a change, in this case, he was telling the truth.‎
    It is not the case that every unfamiliar phrase is an idiom.‎
    In case of fire, break glass. [sign on fire extinguisher holder in public space]‎
    • 2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
      Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.
  2. (now rare) A given condition or state.
  3. A piece of work, specifically defined within a profession.
    It was one of the detective's easiest cases.  Social workers should work on a maximum of forty active cases.  The doctor told us of an interesting case he had treated that morning.‎
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 2, in The Celebrity:
      We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case. Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke.
    • 1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 4, in Pulling the Strings:
      The case was that of a murder. It had an element of mystery about it, however, which was puzzling the authorities. A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff. These properties were known to have belonged to a toddy drawer. He had disappeared.
  4. (academia) An instance or event as a topic of study.
    The teaching consists of theory lessons and case studies.‎
  5. (law) A legal proceeding, lawsuit.
    • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Tremarn Case:
      “Two or three months more went by ; the public were eagerly awaiting the arrival of this semi-exotic claimant to an English peerage, and sensations, surpassing those of the Tichbourne case, were looked forward to with palpitating interest. […]”
  6. (grammar) A specific inflection of a word depending on its function in the sentence.
    The accusative case canonically indicates a direct object.  Latin has six cases, and remnants of a seventh.‎
    • 1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 6, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 292:
      Now, the Subject of either an indicative or a subjunctive Clause is always assigned Nominative case, as we see from:
      (16) (a)   I know [that they/*them/*their leave for Hawaii tomorrow]
      (16) (b)   I demand [that they/*them/*their leave for Hawaii tomorrow]
      By contrast, the Subject of an infinitive Clause is assigned Objective case, as we see from:
      (17)   I want [them/*they/*their to leave for Hawaii tomorrow]
      And the Subject of a gerund Clause is assigned either Objective or Genitive case: cf.
      (18)   I don't like the idea of [them/their/*they leaving for Hawaii tomorrow]
  7. (grammar, uncountable) Grammatical cases and their meanings taken either as a topic in general or within a specific language.
    Jane has been studying case in Caucasian languages.  Latin is a language that employs case.‎
  8. (medicine) An instance of a specific condition or set of symptoms.
    There were another five cases reported overnight.‎
  9. (programming) A section of code representing one of the actions of a conditional switch.
    • 2004, Rick Miller, C++ for Artists
      Place a break statement at the end of every case to prevent case fall-through.
    • 2011, Stephen Prata, C++ Primer Plus (page 275)
      Execution does not automatically stop at the next case.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Hyponyms
  • See also Wikisaurus:grammatical case
Translations

Verb

case ‎(third-person singular simple present cases, present participle casing, simple past and past participle cased)

  1. (obsolete) To propose hypothetical cases.
    • L'Estrange
      Casing upon the matter.

See also

  • Appendix:Grammatical cases

Etymology 2

From Middle English cas, from Old Northern French casse, (compare Old French chasse ‎(“box, chest, case”)), from Latin capsa ‎(“box, bookcase”), from capio ‎(“to take, seize, hold”).

Noun

case ‎(plural cases)

  1. A box that contains or can contain a number of identical items of manufacture.
  2. A box, sheath, or covering generally.
    a case for spectacles; the case of a watch
  3. A piece of luggage that can be used to transport an apparatus such as a sewing machine.
  4. An enclosing frame or casing.
    a door case; a window case
  5. A suitcase.
  6. A piece of furniture, constructed partially of transparent glass or plastic, within which items can be displayed.
  7. The outer covering or framework of a piece of apparatus such as a computer.
  8. (printing, historical) A shallow tray divided into compartments or "boxes" for holding type, traditionally arranged in sets of two, the "upper case" (containing capitals, small capitals, accented) and "lower case" (small letters, figures, punctuation marks, quadrats, and spaces).
  9. (typography, by extension) The nature of a piece of alphabetic type, whether a “capital” (upper case) or “small” (lower case) letter.
  10. (poker slang) Four of a kind.
  11. (US) A unit of liquid measure used to measure sales in the beverage industry, equivalent to 192 fluid ounces.
  12. (mining) A small fissure which admits water into the workings.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)
  13. A thin layer of harder metal on the surface of an object whose deeper metal is allowed to remain soft.
Derived terms
Translations
References

Adjective

case ‎(not comparable)

  1. (poker slang) The last remaining card of a particular rank.
    He drew the case eight!
References

Verb

case ‎(third-person singular simple present cases, present participle casing, simple past and past participle cased)

  1. (transitive) To place (an item or items of manufacture) into a box, as in preparation for shipment.
  2. (transitive) To cover or protect with, or as if with, a case; to enclose.
    • Prescott
      The man who, cased in steel, had passed whole days and nights in the saddle.
  3. (transitive, informal) To survey (a building or other location) surreptitiously, as in preparation for a robbery.
    • 1977, Michael Innes, The Gay Phoenix, ISBN 9780396074427, page 116:
      You are in the grounds of Brockholes Abbey, a house into which a great deal of valuable property has just been moved. And your job is to case the joint for a break in.
    • 2014, Amy Goodman, From COINTELPRO to Snowden, the FBI Burglars Speak Out After 43 Years of Silence (Part 2), Democracy Now!, January 8, 2014, 0:49 to 0:57:
      Bonnie worked as a daycare director. She helped case the FBI office by posing as a college student interested in becoming an FBI agent.
Translations

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: hear · least · person · #312: case · fact · known · thee

Anagrams

Asturian

Verb

case

  1. first-person singular present subjunctive of casar
  2. third-person singular present subjunctive of casar

French

Etymology

Borrowing from Latin casa; in some later senses borrowed via Spanish casa. Doublet of chez.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kɑz/
  • Homophone: cases

Noun

case f ‎(plural cases)

  1. hut, cabin, shack
  2. box (on form)
  3. square (on board game)

Derived terms

Anagrams

Galician

Etymology

From Latin quasi ‎(“as if”).

Adverb

case

  1. almost

Italian

Noun

case f

  1. plural of casa

Anagrams

Latin

Participle

cāse

  1. vocative masculine singular of cāsus

Lower Sorbian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈt͡sasɛ]

Noun

case

  1. nominative plural of cas
  2. accusative plural of cas

Old French

Noun

case m ‎(oblique plural cases, nominative singular cases, nominative plural case)

  1. (grammar) case

Portuguese

Pronunciation

  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈka.zi/
  • Rhymes: -azi

Verb

case

  1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of casar
  2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of casar
  3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of casar
  4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of casar

Romanian

Noun

case

  1. plural of casă

Spanish

Verb

case

  1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of casar.
  2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of casar.
  3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of casar.
  4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present subjunctive form of casar.

Venetian

Noun

case

  1. plural of casa

Etymology

Capitalization by Noam Chomsky.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /keɪs/
  • Rhymes: -eɪs

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