case definition

English case definition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /keɪs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪs
• Hyphenation: case

Etymology 1

Middle English cas, from Old French cas (“an event”), from Latin cāsus (“a falling, a fall; accident, event, occurrence; occasion, opportunity; noun case”), perfect passive participle of cadō (“to fall, to drop”).

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.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book III, canto 10:

     Ne wist he how to turne, nor to what place: / Was never wretched man in such a wofull cace.

   • 1726, Nathan Bailey, John Worlidge, Dictionarium Rusticum, Urbanicum & Botanicum

     Mares which are over-fat, hold with much difficulty; whereas those that are but in good case and plump, conceive with the greatest readiness and ease.

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.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698:

     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.

   • 2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 162:

     He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record.

6. (law) A legal proceeding, lawsuit.
   • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Tremarn Case‎^[1]:

     “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. […]”

7. (grammar) A specific inflection of a word (particularly a noun, pronoun, or adjective) 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]

8. (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.

9. (medicine) An instance of a specific condition or set of symptoms.

   There were another five cases reported overnight.

10. (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

Hyponyms

• court case
• See also Thesaurus:grammatical case

Derived terms

Translations

Descendants

• → Swedish: case n

Verb

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

1. (obsolete) to propose hypothetical cases
   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], OCLC 228727523:

     Casing upon the Matter.

See also

• Appendix:Grammatical cases

References

• case on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From Middle English cas, from Old Northern French casse, (compare Old French chasse (“box, chest, case”)), from Latin capsa (“box, bookcase”), from capiō (“to take, seize, hold”). Doublet of cash. Compare Spanish caja, Asturian caxa.

Noun

case (plural cases)

2. A box that contains or can contain a number of identical items of manufacture.
3. A box, sheath, or covering generally.

   a case for spectacles; the case of a watch

4. A piece of luggage that can be used to transport an apparatus such as a sewing machine.
5. An enclosing frame or casing.

   a door case; a window case

6. A suitcase.
7. A piece of furniture, constructed partially of transparent glass or plastic, within which items can be displayed.
8. The outer covering or framework of a piece of apparatus such as a computer.
9. (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).
10. (typography, by extension) The nature of a piece of alphabetic type, whether a “capital” (upper case) or “small” (lower case) letter.
11. (poker slang) Four of a kind.
12. (US) A unit of liquid measure used to measure sales in the beverage industry, equivalent to 192 fluid ounces.
13. (mining) A small fissure which admits water into the workings^[1].
14. A thin layer of harder metal on the surface of an object whose deeper metal is allowed to remain soft.
15. A cardboard box that holds (usually 24) beer bottles or cans.

    Synonym: carton

    a single case of Bud Light

Derived

Translations

Derived terms

References

• Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. →ISBN

Adjective

case (not comparable)

1. (poker slang) The last remaining card of a particular rank.

   He drew the case eight!

   • 2006, David Apostolico, Lessons from the Professional Poker Tour (page 21)

     If he did have a bigger ace, I still had at least six outs — the case ace, two nines, and three tens. I could also have more outs if he held anything less than A-K.

References

• Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. →ISBN

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.
   • 1855–1858, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, OCLC 645131689:

     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, 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

Derived terms

• case the deck

Further reading

• case at OneLook Dictionary Search
• case in Britannica Dictionary
• case in Macmillan Collocations Dictionary
• case in Sentence collocations by Cambridge Dictionary
• case in Ozdic collocation dictionary
• case in WordReference English Collocations

Anagrams

• ACEs, ASCE, Aces, Ceas, ESCA, SCEA, aces, aesc, esca, æsc

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Afar case definition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ħʌˈse/
• Hyphenation: ca‧se

Verb

casé (frequentative casamcasé, passive cassiimé)

1. (transitive) wave at
2. (transitive) strike, hit

Conjugation

Conjugation of case (type II verb)
		1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular		1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
				m	f
perfective	V-affirmative	caséh	castéh	caséh	castéh	casnéh	casteeníh	caseeníh
	N-affirmative	casé	casté	casé	casté	casné	castén	casén
	negative	mácasinniyo	mácasinnito	mácasinna	mácasinna	mácasinnino	mácasinniton	mácasinnon
imperfective	V-affirmative	casáh	castáh	casáh	castáh	casnáh	castaanáh	casaanáh
	N-affirmative	casá	castá	casá	castá	casná	castán	casán
	negative	mácasa	mácasta	mácasa	mácasta	mácasna	mácastan	mácasan
prospective	V-affirmative	caséliyoh caséyyoh	casélitoh caséttoh	caséleh	caséleh	casélinoh casénnoh	casélitoonuh caséttoonuh	caséloonuh
	N-affirmative	caséliyo caséyyo	casélito casétto	caséle	caséle	casélino casénno	caséliton casétton	casélon
conjunctive I	V-affirmative	cásuh	cástuh	cásuh	cástuh	cásuh	castóonuh	casóonuh
	N-affirmative	cásu	cástu	cásu	cástu	cásu	castón	casón
	negative	casé wáyuh	casé wáytuh	casé wáyuh	casé wáytuh	casé wáynuh	casé waytóonuh	casé wóonuh
conjunctive II	V-affirmative	casánkeh	castánkeh	casánkeh	castánkeh	casnánkeh	castaanánkeh	casaanánkeh
	N-affirmative	casánke	castánke	casánke	castánke	casnánke	castaanánke	casaanánke
	negative	casé wáankeh	casé waytánkeh	casé wáankeh	casé waytánkeh	casé waynánkeh	casé waytaanánkeh	casé wáankeh
jussive	affirmative	cásay	cástay	cásay	cástay	cásay	castóonay	casóonay
	negative	casé wáay	casé wáytay	casé wáay	casé wáytay	casé wáynay	casé waytóonay	casé wóonay
past conditional	affirmative	casinniyóy	casinnitóy	casinnáy	casinnáy	casinninóy	casinnitoonúy	casinnoonúy
	negative	casé wanniyóy	casé wannitóy	casé wannáy	casé wannáy	casé wanninóy	casé wannitoonúy	casé wanninoonúy
present conditional I	affirmative	casék	casték	casék	casték	casnék	casteeník	caseeník
	negative	casé wéek	casé wayték	casé wéek	casé wayték	casé waynék	casé wayteeník	casé weeník
		singular	plural			singular	plural
consultative	affirmative	casóo	casnóo	imperative	affirmative	cás	cása
	negative	macasóo	macasnóo		negative	mácasin	mácasina
-h converb	-i form	-k converb	-in(n)uh converb	-innuk converb	infinitive	indefinite participle
						V-focus	N-focus
cásah	cási	cásak	casínnuh	casínnuk	casíyya	casináanih	casináan
Compound tenses past perfect affirmative perfective + perfective of én or sugé present perfect affirmative perfective + imperfective of én future perfect affirmative perfective + prospective of sugé past progressive -k converb + imperfective of én or sugé present progressive affirmative imperfect + imperfective of én future progressive -k converb + prospective of sugé immediate future affirmative conjunctive I + imperfective of wée imperfect potential I affirmative conjunctive I + imperfective of takké imperfect potential II affirmative imperfective + -m + takké negative casé + imperfective of wée + -m + takké perfect potential affirmative perfective + -m + takké negative casé + perfective of wée + -m + takké present conditional II affirmative imperfective + object pronoun + tekkék negative casé + perfective of wée + object pronoun + tekkék perfect conditional affirmative perfective + imperfective of sugé + -k negative perfective + sugé + imperfective of wée -k irrealis casé + perfective of xaaxé or raaré

References

• E. M. Parker; R. J. Hayward (1985), “case”, in An Afar-English-French dictionary (with Grammatical Notes in English), University of London, →ISBN
• Mohamed Hassan Kamil (2015) L’afar: description grammaticale d’une langue couchitique (Djibouti, Erythrée et Ethiopie)‎^[2], Paris: Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (doctoral thesis), page 263

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Asturian case definition

Verb

case

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

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Chinese case definition

Alternative forms

• K士

Etymology

Borrowed from English case.

Pronunciation

Noun

case

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) case (clarification of this definition is needed)
   • 2015, 區瑞強, 我們都是這樣唱大的 II：《承先啟後》李克勤

     呢個好多case㗎。呢一個，就係張國榮，有噉個case啦。 [Cantonese, trad.]
     呢个好多case㗎。呢一个，就系张国荣，有噉个case啦。 [Cantonese, simp.]

     ni¹ go³ hou² do¹ kei¹ si² gaa³. ni¹ jat¹ go³, zau⁶ hai⁶ zoeng¹ gwok³ wing⁴, jau⁵ gam² go³ kei¹ si² laa¹. [Jyutping]

     That kind of case happens often. It happened with Leslie Cheung.

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French case definition

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin casa, in the sense of "hut, cabin". The other senses are a semantic loan from Spanish casa. Doublet of chez, which was inherited.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaz/, /kɑz/

• Audio

  (file)

• Audio (CAN)

  (file)

• Homophone: cases

Noun

case f (plural cases)

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

Derived terms

• avoir une case en moins
• case départ
• case à cocher
• manquer une case
• retour à la case départ

Descendants

• Saint Dominican Creole French: caze
  • Haitian Creole: kay

Further reading

• “case”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• à sec

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Galician case definition

Alternative forms

• caixe

Etymology

Attested since the 15th century (quasy), inherited from Latin quasi (“as if”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈkɑsɪ]

Adverb

case

1. almost

References

• “quasy” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006–2018.
• “case” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “case” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “case” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

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Italian case definition

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: ca‧se

Noun

case f

1. plural of casa

Anagrams

• asce, esca, seca

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Lower Sorbian case definition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡sasɛ/, [ˈt͡sasə]

Noun

case

1. nominative/accusative plural of cas

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Middle Dutch case definition

Etymology

From Old Dutch *kāsi, from late Proto-West Germanic *kāsī, borrowed from Latin cāseus.

Noun

câse m or n

1. cheese

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Alternative forms

• kese (eastern)

Descendants

• Dutch: kaas
  • Afrikaans: kaas
    • → Sotho: kase
    • → Tswana: kase
  • Berbice Creole Dutch: kasi
  • Jersey Dutch: kääs
  • Negerhollands: kaas, kaes
  • → Aukan: kasi
  • → Papiamentu: keshi (from the diminutive)
  • → Peranakan Indonesian: kas
  • → Sranan Tongo: kasi
    • → Caribbean Hindustani: kási
    • → Saramaccan: kási
• Limburgish: kieës, kees

Further reading

• “case”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929), “case (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I

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Norwegian Bokmål case definition

Etymology

English case, from Latin cāsus. Doublet of kasus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɛɪ̯s/, /kæɪ̯s/

Noun

case m or n (definite singular casen or caset, indefinite plural caser, definite plural casene)

1. a case study; a case as used in a case study

References

• “case” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “case_2” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

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Norwegian Nynorsk case definition

Etymology

English case, from Latin cāsus. Doublet of kasus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɛɪ̯s/, /kæɪ̯s/ (examples of pronunciation)

Noun

case m or n (definite singular casen or caset, indefinite plural casar or case, definite plural casane or casa)

1. a case study; a case as used in a case study

   Synonyms: døme, eksempel

References

• “case” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

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Old French case definition

Noun

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

1. (grammar) case

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Portuguese case definition

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: ca‧se
• Rhymes: -azi, -azɨ

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

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Romanian case definition

Noun

case

1. inflection of casă:
   1. plural
   2. genitive/dative singular

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Spanish case definition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkase/, [ˈka.se]

Verb

case

1. inflection of casar:
   1. first-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular present subjunctive
   3. third-person singular imperative

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Swedish case definition

Etymology

Borrowed from English case, from Latin cāsus. Doublet of kasus.

Noun

case n

1. (countable) a case (instance or event as a topic of study)

Synonyms

• fall

Derived terms

• casemetodik

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Venetian case definition

Noun

case

1. plural of casa