• IPA: /keɪs/

From Middle English cas, from Old French cas, from Latin cāsus, perfect passive participle of cadō.

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.
   • 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 ↗:

     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.

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

     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; the set of tasks involved in addressing the situation of a specific person or event.

   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 ↗:

     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.

4. (academia) An instance or event as a topic of study.

   The teaching consists of theory lessons and case studies.

5. (legal) A legal proceeding; a lawsuit or prosecution.
   • 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:

     “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 (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.

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.
10. (archaic) A love affair.
    • 1867, The Young Ladies' Journal, page 467:

      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.

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

      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.

• befall
• grammatical case

• French: cas
• German: Fall, Sache, Beispiel, Punkt, Argument
• Italian: caso
• Portuguese: caso
• Russian: де́ло
• Spanish: caso

• French: cas
• German: Fall
• Italian: caso
• Portuguese: caso
• Russian: де́ло

• French: cas
• German: Fall
• Italian: caso
• Portuguese: caso
• Russian: слу́чай
• Spanish: caso

• French: cause
• German: Fall, Prozess, Rechtssache
• Italian: causa, caso
• Portuguese: caso, causa
• Russian: судебное дело
• Spanish: causa, pleito, argumento

• French: cas
• German: Fall
• Italian: caso
• Portuguese: caso
• Russian: слу́чай

case (cases, present participle casing; simple past and past participle cased)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) 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 ↗:

     Casing upon the Matter.

From Middle English case, from fro-nor casse, (compare Old French chasse), from Latin capsa, from capiō.

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.
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.

    Synonyms: carton

    a single case of Bud Light

15. (UK, slang, obsolete) A counterfeit crown .
    • 1859, Snowden's magistrates assistant, page 90:

      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.

• French: caisse
• German: Kiste, Behälter
• Italian: cassetta
• Portuguese: caixa
• Russian: я́щик
• Spanish: caja

• German: Hülle
• Italian: rivestimento, copertura
• Russian: футля́р

• French: écrin
• German: Koffer, Kasten
• Italian: baule, cassa
• Portuguese: caixa
• Russian: я́щик
• Spanish: caja, maleta

• French: malle
• German: Koffer
• Italian: valigia
• Portuguese: maleta, mala, valise, valisa
• Russian: чемода́н
• Spanish: maleta, valija

• French: vitrine
• German: Vitrine
• Italian: vetrinetta
• Portuguese: vitrine, mostruário
• Russian: витри́на
• Spanish: vitrina

• French: carter
• German: Gehäuse
• Italian: intelaiatura, custodia, contenitore, cabinet, involucro
• Portuguese: caixa
• Russian: ко́жух
• Spanish: caja, carcasa

• Russian: наборная касса
• Spanish: caja

• French: casse
• German: Schriftkasten
• Portuguese: caixa
• Russian: набо́рная ка́сса
• Spanish: caja

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.

case (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 ↗:

     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.
   • 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.

• German: einpacken
• Portuguese: encaixotar
• Russian: упаковывать
• Spanish: empaquetar

• German: ausbaldowern (slang), auskundschaften
• Spanish: estudiar el terreno, fichar

case

1. (computing, software) computer-aided software engineering.
2. (manufacturing) coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers.

• IPA: /keɪs/

Capitalization by Noam Chomsky.

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

1. Surname.
2. A place name:
   1. A twp in Presque Isle County, Michigan.
   2. An unincorporated community in Laclede County, Missouri.
   3. An unincorporated community in Warren County, Missouri.