case
Forms
- Plural
- cases
- present (v1)
- case
- past (v2)
- cased
- past participle (v3)
- cased
- present participle
- casing
- 3rd person singular
- cases
Definitions
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.
- Conditioning would require exposition to any sentence before being uttered, which isn’t the case.
2.A specific matter or piece of work, specifically defined within a profession, usually in respect of a specific person and/or event; the set of tasks involved in addressing one such matter.
- 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.
3.An instance or event as a topic of study.
- The teaching consists of theory lessons and case studies.
- He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record.
4.A legal proceeding; a lawsuit or prosecution.
- In this case, I think he is correct.
- In the worst case scenario we'll just have to look as happy as we can.
1.The last remaining card of a particular rank.(slang)
- He drew the case eight!
- 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.
1.To place (an item or items of manufacture) into a box, as in preparation for shipment.
2.To survey (a building or other location) surreptitiously, as in preparation for a robbery.(informal)
- Bonnie worked as a daycare director. She helped case the FBI office by posing as a college student interested in becoming an FBI agent.
- 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.
3.To cover or protect with, or as if with, a case; to enclose.
- The man who, cased in steel, had passed whole days and nights in the saddle.
Frequency
Overall
Very common· #205
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Common
- General reading & writing
- Very common
- Academic
- Common
- Literature
- Uncommon
Related words
Etymology
From Middle English cas
From Old French cas (“an event”)
From Latin cāsus (“a falling, a fall; accident, event, occurrence; occasion, opportunity; noun case”), perfect passive participle of cadō (“to fall, to drop”).