case

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See also casé, cåse, and cåsĕ

Contents

English [edit]

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Pronunciation [edit]

Etymology 1 [edit]

From Middle English cas, from Old English cas, casus (“noun case”), from Old French cas (“an event”), from Latin casus (“a falling, a fall; accident, event, occurrence; occasion, opportunity; noun case”), perfect passive participle of cado (“to fall, to drop”), from Proto-Indo-European *kad- (“to fall”).

Noun [edit]

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]
  2. (now rare) A given condition or state.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.10:
      Ne wist he how to turne, nor to what place: / Was never wretched man in such a wofull cace.
  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.
  4. (academia) An instance or event as a topic of study.
    • 2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?”, 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.
    The teaching consists of theory lessons and case studies.
  5. (law) A legal proceeding, lawsuit.
    • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, 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. […]”
  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.
  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. (computing, 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 [edit]
Derived terms [edit]
Hyponyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
actual event, situation, or fact
piece of work
instance or event as a topic of study
legal proceeding
grammar: specific inflection
grammar: set of grammatical cases or their meanings
medicine: instance of a specific condition or set of symptoms
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb [edit]

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 [edit]

Etymology 2 [edit]

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

Noun [edit]

case (plural cases)

  1. A box that contains or can contain a number of identical items of manufacture.
  2. A piece of luggage that can be used to transport an apparatus such as a sewing machine.
  3. A suitcase.
  4. A piece of furniture, constructed partially of transparent glass or plastic, within which items can be displayed.
  5. The outer covering or framework of a piece of apparatus such as a computer.
  6. (typography) The nature of a piece of alphabetic type, whether a “capital” (upper case) or “small” (lower case) letter.
  7. (poker slang) Four of a kind.
  8. (US) A unit of liquid measure used to measure sales in the beverage industry, equivalent to 192 fluid ounces.
Derived terms [edit]
Terms derived from case (noun, etymology 2)
Translations [edit]
box containing a number of identical items of manufacture
piece of luggage that can be used to transport an apparatus
suitcase
piece of furniture, constructed partially of transparent glass or plastic
outer covering or framework of a piece of apparatus
typography: the nature of a piece of alphabetic type
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
References [edit]

Adjective [edit]

case (not comparable)

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

Verb [edit]

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, p. 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.
Translations [edit]
to place into a box
to survey surreptitiously

Statistics [edit]

Anagrams [edit]

Asturian [edit]

Verb [edit]

case

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

French [edit]

Etymology [edit]

Borrowed from Latin casa; in some later senses borrowed via Spanish casa.

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

case f (plural cases)

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

Derived terms [edit]

Anagrams [edit]

Galician [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Latin quasi (“as if”).

Adverb [edit]

case

  1. almost

Italian [edit]

Noun [edit]

case f pl

  1. Plural form of casa

Anagrams [edit]

Old French [edit]

Noun [edit]

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

  1. (grammar) case

Portuguese [edit]

Verb [edit]

case

  1. First-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of casar
  2. Third-person singular (ele, ela, also used with tu and você?) present subjunctive of casar
  3. Third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of casar
  4. Third-person singular (você) negative imperative of casar

Romanian [edit]

Noun [edit]

case f pl

  1. Plural form of casă

Spanish [edit]

Verb [edit]

case (infinitive casar)

  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 [edit]

Noun [edit]

case f

  1. Plural form of casa
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