case

plural cases

1. An actual event, situation, or fact.

   For a change, in this case, he was telling the truth.

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   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]

   Conditioning would require exposition to any sentence before being uttered, which isn’t the case.

   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.

   2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845

2. archaicA given condition or state.

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

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

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   Thus vvhilſt he hopt he hild her leaſt, ſo altereth the cace / VVith ſuch as ſhe, Ah ſuch it is to build on ſuch a face.

   1586, William Warner, “The Fourth Booke. Chapter XXXVI.”, in Albions England. Or Historicall Map of the Same Island: […], London: […] George Robinson [and R. Ward] for Thomas Cadman, […], →OCLC, page 174

   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.

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

3. A specific matter or piece of work, specifically defined within a profession, usually in respect of a specific person and/or event; the set of tasks involved in addressing one such matter.

   It was one of the detective's easiest cases.

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   Social workers should work on a maximum of forty active cases.

   The doctor told us of an interesting case he had treated that morning.

   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.

   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

   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.

   1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 4, in Pulling the Strings

4. academiaAn instance or event as a topic of study.

   The teaching consists of theory lessons and case studies.

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

   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

5. lawA legal proceeding; a lawsuit or prosecution.

   As the conflict has dragged on, prosecutors in Ukraine are now pursuing 247 cases of environmental war crimes against Russia in Ukrainian courts and the International Criminal Court, according to reporting published in April by the New York Times.

   2025 November 20, Simmone Shah, “Ukraine to Claim $44bn in Climate Damages From Russia. Why War Is So Bad For Emissions”, in TIME, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2025

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   “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. […]”

   1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Tremarn Case”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020

6. grammarA specific inflection of a word (particularly a noun, pronoun, or adjective) depending on its function in the sentence.

   Latin has six cases, and remnants of a seventh.

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   The accusative case most commonly indicates a direct object.

   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]

   1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 6, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 292

7. uncountablegrammarGrammatical cases and their meanings taken either as a topic in general or within a specific language.

   Latin is a language that employs case.

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   Jane has been studying case in Caucasian languages.

8. medicineAn instance of a specific condition or set of symptoms.

   There were another five cases reported overnight.

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   We turn next to the puzzle of borderlineness: If Harry is intermediate between clear cases and clear noncases of baldness, “Is Harry bald?” seems to have no good, direct, answer.

   2013, Gillian Russell, Delia Graff Fara, Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Language, page 144

   Antonyms: noncase

9. computingA section of code representing one of the actions of a conditional switch.

   Execution does not automatically stop at the next case.

   2011, Stephen Prata, C++ Primer Plus, page 275

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   Place a break statement at the end of every case to prevent case fall-through.

   2004, Rick Miller, C++ for Artists

10. archaicA love affair.

    I thought it only an amourette when you told me. It was a fire — a conflagration; subdue it. I saw it was a case, and I advised you to try — dissipation.

    1876, The New York Drama, volumes 1-2, page 1

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    Poor fellow, just as I thought! It's a case with him, anybody can see that. He is thinking about Christine, for a certainty. Lovers always take to stargazing and moonlight dreaming — it's part of their complaint.

    1867, The Young Ladies' Journal, page 467

present singular third person cases · participle present casing · participle past cased · past cased

1. intransitiveobsoleteTo propose hypothetical cases.

   Casing upon the Matter.

   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

plural cases

1. A box that contains or can contain a number of identical items of manufacture or commerce.

   When the ship reached Melbourne two days later we collared a couple of cases of apples from the hold and hid them in our bunks.

   1933, Frank Clune, Try Anything Once, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 94

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. historicalmediaA 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. broadlymediaThe nature of a piece of alphabetic type, whether a "capital" (upper case) or "small" (lower case) letter.
10. slangcard gamesFour of a kind.
11. USA unit of liquid measure used to measure sales in the beverage industry, equivalent to 192 fluid ounces.
12. businessA small fissure which admits water into the workings.
13. A thin layer of harder metal on the surface of an object whose deeper metal is allowed to remain soft.
14. A cardboard box that holds (usually 24) beer bottles or cans.

    a single case of Bud Light

    Synonyms: carton

15. UKobsoleteslangA counterfeit crown (five-shilling coin).

    The price of a case (five shillings piece bad) from the smasher is about one shilling; an alderman (two and sixpence) about sixpence; a peg (shilling) about threepence; a downer or sprat (sixpence) about twopence.

    1859, Snowden's magistrates assistant, page 90

1. not comparableslangcard gamesThe last remaining card of a particular rank.

   He drew the case eight!

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   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.

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

present singular third person cases · participle present casing · participle past cased · past cased

1. transitiveTo place (an item or items of manufacture) into a box, as in preparation for shipment.
2. transitiveTo cover or protect with, or as if with, a case; to enclose.

   The man who, cased in steel, had passed whole days and nights in the saddle.

   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

3. informaltransitiveTo survey (a building or other location) surreptitiously, as in preparation for a robbery.

   Bonnie worked as a daycare director. She helped case the FBI office by posing as a college student interested in becoming an FBI agent.

   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

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   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.

   1977, Michael Innes, The Gay Phoenix, →ISBN, page 116

   Sam: Sometimes before I go to a new place, my family takes me there ahead of time to see what it's like. My dad calls it "casing the joint", which is dumb, but it is helpful to know what to expect. Doug: Hey. Elsa: Hey. Doug: It's been a while since we've cased a joint. Elsa: It has.

   2017, Robia Rashid, “I Lost My Poor Meetball” (13:45 from the start), in Joe Kessler, director, Atypical, season 1, episode 7, spoken by Sam, Doug, and Elsa (Keir Gilchrist, Michael Rapaport, and Jennifer Jason Leigh), via Netflix

1. abbreviationacronymuncountablecomputingAcronym of computer-aided software engineering.
2. abbreviationacronymbusinessAcronym of coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers.

1. grammarabstract feature of a noun phrase that determines its function in a sentence, such as a grammatical case and a position.

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   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).

   1988, Frederick J. Newmeyer, Linguistic Theory: Foundations

   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 licensing requirement making arguments visible for θ-marking, and not morphological case.

   1993, Anders Holmberg, Urpo Nikanne, Case and Other Functional Categories in Finnish Syntax

1. A surname.
2. A place name:
   1. A township in Presque Isle County, Michigan, United States.
   2. An unincorporated community in Laclede County, Missouri, United States.
   3. An unincorporated community in Warren County, Missouri.