See Also: Case Law(money)
fly-case(medicine)
case(dictionary)
case(1)(dictionary)
case law(dictionary)
Case Law(law)
Case(medicine)
Case(law)
CASE(encyclopedia)
Just in case(finance)

case(1) (iou)



case noun1. ME.
[Old & mod. French cas from Latin casus, from base of cadere to fall. In branch II directly from Latin, translating Greek ptosis lit. 'fall'.]
I. A thing that befalls or happens, an event, occurrence; chance, hazard. ME-L16.
Caxton By caase of fortune. Spenser I you recount a ruefull cace.
An instance of a thing's occurrence, a circumstance, a fact, etc. ME.
R. Davies You get used to vanity, but Andro was a very special case. A. Hailey A clear case of the women versus the men.
b. A person (of a specified sort); an eccentric or comical person. slang. M19.
K. Waterhouse They laughed.., shaking their heads. 'He's a case, i'n't he?'
c. An infatuation, an instance of falling in love. slang. M19.
Condition, state, plight; (good) physical condition. arch. exc. in certain phrs. (see below). ME.
Bible (AV): Exodus 5:19 They were in euill case. Swift Their Horses large, but extreamly out of Case. R. Bolt I have..been several times in such a case that I thought to die within the hour.
The state of matters relating to a given person or thing, one's circumstances or position; the actual state of affairs, the fact. LME.
Jeremy Taylor He hath no need to use them, as the case now stands. Ld Macaulay The case with me is the reverse. J. F. Kennedy In Germany's case..the old ideas and beliefs were completely destroyed. L. Edel As has often been the case, changes in philosophical thought heralded technical innovations in the arts.
The condition of disease or injury of a person etc.; an instance of disease or injury; colloq. a patient, a person in need of (specified) treatment. LME.
W. H. Dixon At Deal they shipped a case of small-pox. N. Mitford Not..able to leave the Treatment Room..except to carry 'cases' upstairs to the Hospital. W. C. Williams My first case was one of dandruff which I treated with some simple remedy. H. Robbins She's a mental case. T. S. Eliot I will not discuss my case before another patient.
A legal action or suit, esp. one brought to trial; a statement of the facts in an adjudicated case, drawn up for a higher court's consideration; an action or suit that has been decided and may be cited. E16.
Shakespeare Hamlet Why may that not be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now,..his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? F. Raphael It was six months before the case came up.
The sum of arguments on one side of a legal cause or transf. of any matter of debate or controversy; a valid set of arguments. L16.
M. Drayton My doubtfull Case to plead. R. A. Knox In arguing, never disguise from yourself the strength of the other man's case. T. Benn Let me try and make the case for fundamental changes to the way our economy is organised.
An incident or set of circumstances for investigation by police, a detective agency, a social worker, etc. M19.
L. Lee The police left..with the case unsolved.
II.
Grammar. Any of the inflected forms of noun, adjective, or pronoun which express the varied relation in which the word may stand to other words in the sentence; this relation itself whether indicated by inflection or not. LME.
Phrases: as the case may be according to the situation. by the nature of the case, by the very nature of the case: see NATURE noun. case in point: see POINT noun1. case of CONSCIENCE. from the nature of the case, from the very nature of the case: see NATURE noun. hard case: see HARD adjective. have a case on slang be infatuated or in love with. if case = in case below. in any case: see ANY adjective 1a. in case (a) if, in the event that, lest; (b) (as a precaution) against some possible occurrence. in case of in the event of. in good case, in bad case, etc., arch. in good, bad, etc., condition, well, badly, etc., off. in no case under no circumstances. in that case if that is true, should that happen. in the case of as regards. in the nature of the case, in the very nature of the case: see NATURE noun. just in case = in case (b) above. leading case Law a case serving as a precedent for deciding others. make out a case (for) put forward valid arguments (for). meet the case: see MEET verb. on the case Hist. (of a common-law action) based on a writ setting out fully details of a personal wrong not involving force. special case: see SPECIAL adjective. state a case: see STATE verb. STATED case. subjective case: see SUBJECTIVE adjective 5. test case: see TEST noun1. the state of the case: see STATE noun. trespass on the case: see TRESPASS noun 3.
Comb.: casebook a book containing records of legal, medical, or other cases; case conference a meeting of professionals (as doctors, teachers, social workers, etc.) to discuss a particular case; case grammar Linguistics a form of transformational grammar in which the deep structure of sentences is analysed in terms of semantic case relationships; case history a record of a person's origins, personal history, and other information, for use in determining (esp. medical) treatment or other course of action; case-law law as settled by decided cases; case-load the cases with which a doctor etc. is concerned at any one time; case-study (a record of) an attempt to understand a person, matter, etc., from collected information about his, her, or its development; casework social work concerned with individual persons or small groups (also more fully social casework); caseworker a social worker involved in casework (also more fully social caseworker).