catflap.org Online Dictionary Query

  Case \Case\, n. [F. cas, fr. L. casus, fr. cadere to fall, to
     happen. Cf. Chance.]
     1. Chance; accident; hap; opportunity. [Obs.]
  
              By aventure, or sort, or cas.         --Chaucer.
  
     2. That which befalls, comes, or happens; an event; an
        instance; a circumstance, or all the circumstances;
        condition; state of things; affair; as, a strange case; a
        case of injustice; the case of the Indian tribes.
  
              In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge.
                                                    --Deut. xxiv.
                                                    13.
  
              If the case of the man be so with his wife. --Matt.
                                                    xix. 10.
  
              And when a lady's in the case You know all other
              things give place.                    --Gay.
  
              You think this madness but a common case. --Pope.
  
              I am in case to justle a constable,   --Shak.
  
     3. (Med. & Surg.) A patient under treatment; an instance of
        sickness or injury; as, ten cases of fever; also, the
        history of a disease or injury.
  
              A proper remedy in hypochondriacal cases.
                                                    --Arbuthnot.
  
     4. (Law) The matters of fact or conditions involved in a
        suit, as distinguished from the questions of law; a suit
        or action at law; a cause.
  
              Let us consider the reason of the case, for nothing
              is law that is not reason.            --Sir John
                                                    Powell.
  
              Not one case in the reports of our courts. --Steele.
  
     5. (Gram.) One of the forms, or the inflections or changes of
        form, of a noun, pronoun, or adjective, which indicate its
        relation to other words, and in the aggregate constitute
        its declension; the relation which a noun or pronoun
        sustains to some other word.
  
              Case is properly a falling off from the nominative
              or first state of word; the name for which, however,
              is now, by extension of its signification, applied
              also to the nominative.               --J. W. Gibbs.
  
     Note: Cases other than the nominative are oblique cases. Case
           endings are terminations by which certain cases are
           distinguished. In old English, as in Latin, nouns had
           several cases distinguished by case endings, but in
           modern English only that of the possessive case is
           retained.
  
     Action on the case (Law), according to the old
        classification (now obsolete), was an action for redress
        of wrongs or injuries to person or property not specially
        provided against by law, in which the whole cause of
        complaint was set out in the writ; -- called also
        trespass on the case, or simply case.
  
     All a case, a matter of indifference. [Obs.] ``It is all a
        case to me.'' --L'Estrange.
  
     Case at bar. See under Bar, n.
  
     Case divinity, casuistry.
  
     Case lawyer, one versed in the reports of cases rather than
        in the science of the law.
  
     Case stated or agreed on (Law), a statement in writing of
        facts agreed on and submitted to the court for a decision
        of the legal points arising on them.
  
     A hard case, an abandoned or incorrigible person. [Colloq.]
        
  
     In any case, whatever may be the state of affairs; anyhow.
        
  
     In case, or In case that, if; supposing that; in the
        event or contingency; if it should happen that. ``In case
        we are surprised, keep by me.'' --W. Irving.
  
     In good case, in good condition, health, or state of body.
        
  
     To put a case, to suppose a hypothetical or illustrative
        case.
  
     Syn: Situation, condition, state; circumstances; plight;
          predicament; occurrence; contingency; accident; event;
          conjuncture; cause; action; suit.