case

noun

1. an example, instance, or occurrence a case of carelessness, a case of measles
2. a person being treated or helped, as by a doctor or social worker
3. any individual or matter requiring or undergoing official or formal observation, study, investigation, etc.
4. a statement of the facts or circumstances, as in a law court, esp. the argument of one side the case for the defendant
5. supporting or convincing arguments or evidence; proper grounds for a statement or action he has no case
6. a legal action or suit, esp. one studied or cited as a precedent
7. ☆ Informal a peculiar or eccentric person
8. ☆ Informal an infatuation; crush

9. Etymology: so named because L cases were thought of as “falling away” from the nom.: see accidence

   Gram.
   1. the syntactic relationship shown in highly inflected languages such as German and Latin by changes in the form of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives
   2. the form that a noun, pronoun, or adjective takes to show such relationship
   3. any of the sets of such forms the accusative case
   4. in Modern English and other languages with relatively few inflections, such a relationship, whether expressed by word order or by inflected forms; also, any of these forms or sets of forms, esp. the Modern English subjective, objective, and possessive forms of pronouns and possessive form of nouns

Etymology: ME & OFr cas, an event < L casus, a chance, lit., falling, pp. of cadere, to fall < IE base *ad-, to fall > Sans ad-, to fall off

transitive verb cased, casing cas′·ing

noun

1. a container, as a box, crate, chest, sheath, or folder
2. a protective cover or covering part a leather case, seedcase
3. a full box or its contents a case of beer
4. a set or pair a case of pistols
5. a frame as for a window or door
6. a shallow compartmented tray in which printing type is kept

Etymology: ME < OFr dial. casse (OFr chasse) < L capsa, box < capere, to take, hold: see have

transitive verb cased, casing cas′·ing

1. to put into a container
2. to cover or enclose