case

Meanings

Noun

• An actual event, situation, or fact.
• A given condition or state.
• A piece of work, specifically defined within a profession.
• An instance or event as a topic of study.
• A legal proceeding, lawsuit.
• A specific inflection of a word (particularly a noun, pronoun, or adjective) depending on its function in the sentence.
• Grammatical cases and their meanings taken either as a topic in general or within a specific language.
• An instance of a specific condition or set of symptoms.
• A section of code representing one of the actions of a conditional switch.
• A box that contains or can contain a number of identical items of manufacture.
• A box, sheath, or covering generally.
• A piece of luggage that can be used to transport an apparatus such as a sewing machine.
• An enclosing frame or casing.
• A suitcase.
• A piece of furniture, constructed partially of transparent glass or plastic, within which items can be displayed.
• The outer covering or framework of a piece of apparatus such as a computer.
• 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).
• The nature of a piece of alphabetic type, whether a “capital” (upper case) or “small” (lower case) letter.
• Four of a kind.
• A unit of liquid measure used to measure sales in the beverage industry, equivalent to 192 fluid ounces.
• A small fissure which admits water into the workings.
• A thin layer of harder metal on the surface of an object whose deeper metal is allowed to remain soft.
• A cardboard box that holds (usually 24) beer bottles or cans.

Verb

• to propose hypothetical cases
• To place (an item or items of manufacture) into a box, as in preparation for shipment.
• To cover or protect with, or as if with, a case; to enclose.
• To survey (a building or other location) surreptitiously, as in preparation for a robbery.

Adjective

• The last remaining card of a particular rank.

Related

Similar words

• befall
• grammatical case

Narrower meaning words

• court case
• attaché case
• briefcase
• camel case
• casing
• case harden
• crankcase
• letter case
• lower case
• packing case
• sentence case
• staircase
• suitcase
• title case
• upper case

Origin

• Middle English cas, from Old French cas, from Latin cāsus, perfect passive participle of cadō.
• From Middle English cas, from Old Northern French casse, (compare Old French chasse ("box, chest, case")), from Latin capsa, from capiō. cash. Compare Spanish caja, Asturian caxa.