Case - Dictionary Definition and Overview

Case :  (noun)
1: a comprehensive term for any proceeding in a court of law whereby an individual seeks a legal remedy; "the family brought suit against the landlord" [syn: lawsuit, suit, cause, causa]
2: an occurrence of something; "it was a case of bad judgment"; "another instance occurred yesterday"; "but there is always the famous example of the Smiths" [syn: instance, example]
3: a special set of circumstances; "in that event, the first possibility is excluded"; "it may rain in which case the picnic will be canceled" [syn: event]
4: a problem requiring investigation; "Perry Mason solved the case of the missing heir"
5: the actual state of things; "that was not the case"
6: a statement of facts and reasons used to support an argument; "he stated his case clearly"
7: a portable container for carrying several objects; "the musicians left their instrument cases backstage"
8: a person who is subjected to experimental or other observational procedures; someone who is an object of investigation; "the subjects for this investigation were selected randomly"; "the cases that we studied were drawn from two different communities" [syn: subject, guinea pig]
9: a person requiring professional services; "a typical case was the suburban housewife described by a marriage counselor"
10: the quantity contained in a case [syn: caseful]
11: a glass container used to store and display items in a shop or museum or home [syn: display case, showcase]
12: a specific state of mind that is temporary; "a case of the jitters"
13: nouns or pronouns or adjectives (often marked by inflection) related in some way to other words in a sentence [syn: grammatical case]
14: the housing or outer covering of something; "the clock has a walnut case" [syn: shell, casing]
15: a person of a specified kind (usually with many eccentricities); "a real character"; "a strange character"; "a friendly eccentric"; "the capable type"; "a mental case" [syn: character, eccentric, type]
16: an enveloping structure or covering enclosing an animal or plant organ or part [syn: sheath]
17: the enclosing frame around a door or window opening; "the casings had rotted away and had to be replaced" [syn: casing]
18: bed linen consisting of a cover for a pillow; "the burglar carried his loot in a pillowcase" [syn: pillowcase, slip, pillow slip] (verb)
1: look over, usually with the intention to rob; "They men cased the housed"
2: enclose in, or as if in, a case; "my feet were encased in mud" [syn: encase, incase]

Based on WordNet 2.0

Brain \Brain\, n. [OE. brain, brein, AS. bragen, br[ae]gen; akin to LG. br["a]gen, bregen, D. brein, and perh. to Gr. ?, the upper part of head, if ? =?. [root]95.] 1. (Anat.) The whitish mass of soft matter (the center of the nervous system, and the seat of consciousness and volition) which is inclosed in the cartilaginous or bony cranium of vertebrate animals. It is simply the anterior termination of the spinal cord, and is developed from three embryonic vesicles, whose cavities are connected with the central canal of the cord; the cavities of the vesicles become the central cavities, or ventricles, and the walls thicken unequally and become the three segments, the fore-, mid-, and hind-brain.

Note: In the brain of man the cerebral lobes, or largest part of the forebrain, are enormously developed so as to overhang the cerebellum, the great lobe of the hindbrain, and completely cover the lobes of the midbrain. The surface of the cerebrum is divided into irregular ridges, or convolutions, separated by grooves (the so-called fissures and sulci), and the two hemispheres are connected at the bottom of the longitudinal fissure by a great transverse band of nervous matter, the corpus callosum, while the two halves of the cerebellum are connected on the under side of the brain by the bridge, or pons Varolii.

2. (Zo["o]l.) The anterior or cephalic ganglion in insects and other invertebrates.

3. The organ or seat of intellect; hence, the understanding. `` My brain is too dull.'' --Sir W. Scott.

Note: In this sense, often used in the plural.

4. The affections; fancy; imagination. [R.] --Shak.

To have on the brain, to have constantly in one's thoughts, as a sort of monomania. [Low]

Brain box or case, the bony on cartilaginousCase :  inclosing the brain.

Brain coral, Brain stone coral (Zo["o]l), a massive reef-building coral having the surface covered by ridges separated by furrows so as to resemble somewhat the surface of the brain, esp. such corals of the genera M[ae]andrina and Diploria.

Brain fag (Med.), brain weariness. See Cerebropathy.

Brain fever (Med.), fever in which the brain is specially affected; any acute cerebral affection attended by fever. Brain sand, calcareous matter found in the pineal gland.

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

Case : \Case\ (k[=a]s), n. [OF. casse, F. caisse (cf. It. cassa), fr. L. capsa chest, box, case, fr. capere to take, hold. See Capacious, and cf. 4th Chase, Cash, Enchase, 3d Sash.] 1. A box, sheath, or covering; as, a case for holding goods; a case for spectacles; the case of a watch; the case (capsule) of a cartridge; a case (cover) for a book.

2. A box and its contents; the quantity contained in a box; as, a case of goods; a case of instruments.

3. (Print.) A shallow tray divided into compartments or ``boxes'' for holding type.

Note: Cases for type are usually arranged in sets of two, called respectively the upper and the lower case. The upper case contains capitals, small capitals, accented and marked letters, fractions, and marks of reference: the lower case contains the small letters, figures, marks of punctuation, quadrats, and spaces.

4. An inclosing frame; a casing; as, a door case; a window case.

5. (Mining) A small fissure which admits water to the workings. --Knight.

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

Case : \Case\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cased; p. pr. & vb. n. Casing.] 1. To cover or protect with, or as with, a case; to inclose.

The man who, cased in steel, had passed whole days and nights in the saddle. --Prescott.

2. To strip the skin from; as, to case a box. [Obs.]

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

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.

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

Case : \Case\, v. i. To propose hypothetical cases. [Obs.] ``Casing upon the matter.'' --L'Estrange.

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

Case : practice. A contested question before a court of justice, a suit or action, a cause. 9 Wheat. 738.

Based on Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [Bouvier_Law_Dictionary]:

CASE, remedies. This is the name of an action in very general use, which lies where a party sues for damages for any wrong or cause of complaint to which covenant or trespass will not lie. Steph. Pl. 153 Wodd. 167 Ham. N. P. 1. Vide Writ of trespass on the case. In its most comprehensive signification,Case : includes assumpsit as well as an action in form ex delicto; but when simply mentioned, it is usually understood to mean an action in form ex delicto. 7 T. R. 36. It is a liberal action; Burr, 906, 1011 1 Bl. Rep. 199; bailable at common law. 2 Barr 927-8; founded on the justice and conscience of the Tiff's case, and is in the nature of a bill in equity 3 Burr, 1353, 1357 and the substance of a count in case is the damage assigned. 1 Bl. Rep. 200. 2. An action on the case lies to recover damages for torts not committed with force actual or implied, or having been occasioned by force, where the matter affected was not tangible, or where the injury was not immediate but consequential; 11 Mass. 59, 137 1 Yeates, 586; 6 S. & R. 348; 12 S. & R. 210; 18 John. 257 19 John. 381; 6 Call, 44; 2 Dana, 378 1 Marsh. 194; 2 H. & M. 423; Harper, 113; Coxe, 339; or where the interest in the property was only in reversion. 8 Pick. 235; 7 Conn. 3282 Green, 8 1 John. 511; 3 Hawks, 2462 Murph. 61; 2 N. H. Rep. 430. In these several cases trespass cannot be sustained. 4 T. 11. 489 7 T. R. 9. Case is also the proper remedy for a wrongful act done under legal process regularly issuing from a court of competent jurisdiction. 2 Conn. 700 11 Mass. 500 6 Greenl. 421; 1 Bailey, 441, 457; 9 Conn. 141; 2 Litt. 234; 3 Conn. 5373 Gill & John. 377. Vide Regular and irregular process. 3. It will be proper to consider, 1. in what cases the action of trespass on the case lies; 2. the pleadings 3. the evidence; 4. the judgment. 4.-1. This action lies for injuries, 1. to the absolute rights of persons 2. to the relative rights of persons; 3. to personal property; 4. to real property. 5.-1. When the injury has been done to the absolute rights of persons by an act not immediate but consequential, as in the case of special damages arising from a public nuisance Willes, 71 to 74 or where an incumbrance had been placed in a public street, and the plaintiff passing there received an injury; or for a malicious prosecution. See malicious prosecution. 6.-2. For injuries to the relative rights, as for enticing away an infant child, per quod servitium amisit, 4 Litt. 25; for criminal conversation, seducing or harboring wives; debauching daughters, but in this case the daughter must live with her father as his servant, see Seduction; or enticing away or harboring apprentices or servants. 1 Chit. Pl. 137 2 Chit. Plead. 313, 319. When the seduction takes place in the husband's or father's house, he may, at his election, have trespass or case; 6 Munf. 587; Gilmer, but when the injury is done in the house of another, case is the proper remedy. 5 Greenl. 546. 7.-3. When the injury to personal property is without force and. not immediate, but consequential, or when the plaintiff Is right to it is in reversion, as, where property is injured by a third person while in the hands of a hirer; 3 Camp. 187; 2 Murph. 62; 3 Hawks, 246, case is the proper remedy. 8 East, 693; Ld. Raym. 1399; Str. 634; 1 Chit. Pl. 138. 8.-4. When the real property which has been injured is corporeal, and the injury is not immediate but consequential, as for example, putting a spout so near the plaintiff's land that the water runs upon it; 1 Chit. Pl. 126, 141; Str. 634; or where the plaintiff's property is only in reversion. When the injury has been done to, incorporeal rights, as for obstructing a private way, or disturbing a party in the use of a pew, or for injury to a franchise, as a ferry, and the like, case is the proper remedy. l Chit. Pl. 143. 9.-2. The declaration in case, technically so called, differs from a declaration in trespass, chiefly in this, that in case, it must not, in general, state the injury to have been committed vi et armis; 3 Conn. 64; see 2 Ham. 169; 11 Mass. 57; Coxe, 339; yet after verdict, the words "with force and arms" will, be rejected as surplusage; Harp. 122; and it ought not to conclude contra pacem. Com. Dig. Action on the Case, C 3. The plea is usually the general issue, not guilty. 10.-3. Any matter may, in general, be given in evidence, under the plea of not guilty, except the statute of limitations. In cases of slander and a few other instances, however, this cannot be done. 1 Saund. 130, n. 1; Wilies, 20. When the plaintiff declares in case, with averments appropriate to that form of action and the evidence shows that the injury was trespass; or when he declares in trespass, and the evidence proves an injury for which case will lie, and not trespass, the defendant should be acquitted by the jury, or the plaintiff should be nonsuited. 5 Mass. 560; 16 Mass. 451; Coxe, 339; 3 John. 468. 11.-4. The judgment is, that the plaintiff recover a sum of money, ascertained by a jury, for his damages sustained by the committing of the grievances complained of in the declaration, and costs. 12. In the civil law, an action was given in all cases of nominate contracts, which was always of the same name. But in innominate contracts, which had always the same consideration, but not the same name, there could be no action of the same denomination, but an action which arose from the fact, in factum, or an action with a form which arose from the particular circumstance, praescriptis verbis actio. Lec. Elem. Sec. 779. Vide, generally, Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t.

Based on Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [Bouvier_Law_Dictionary]:

CASE, STATED, practice. An agreement in writing, between a plaintiff and defendant, that the facts in dispute between them are as there agreed upon and mentioned, 3 Whart. 143. 2. The facts being thus ascertained, it is left for the court to decide for which party is the law. As no writ of error lies on a judgment rendered on aCase : stated, Dane's Ab. c. 137, art. 4, n. Sec. 7, it is usual in the agreement to insert a clause that the case stated shall be considered in the nature of special verdict. 3. In that case, a writ of error lies on the judgment which may be rendered upon it. And a writ of error will also lie on a judgment on a case stated, when the parties have agreed to it. 8 Serg. & Rawle, 529. 4. In another sense, by a case stated is understood a statement of all the facts of a case, together with the names of the witnesses, and, a detail of the documents which are to support them. In other words, it is a brief. (q.v.)

Based on Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [Bouvier_Law_Dictionary]:

Case : 

1. Computer Aided Software Engineering.

2. Common Application Service Element.



Based on the Online Dictionary of Computing [Computer_Dictionary]:

Case : 

1. switch statement.

2. Whether a character is a capital letter ("upper case" - ABC..Z) or a small letter ("lower case" - abc..z).

The term case comes from the printing trade when the use of moving type was invented in the early Middle Ages (Caxton or Gutenberg?) and the letters for each font were stored in a box with two sections (or "cases"), the upper case was for the capital letters and the lower case was for the small letters. The Oxford Universal Dictionary of Historical Principles (Feb 1993, reprinted 1952) indicates that this usage of "case" (as the box or frame used by a compositor in the printing trade) was first used in 1588.

(1996-03-01)



Based on the Online Dictionary of Computing [Computer_Dictionary]:

Case :  Common Application Service Element (ISO, OSI)





Based on Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002) [Acronyms_Dictionary]:

Case :  Computer Aided Software Engineering





Based on Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002) [Acronyms_Dictionary]:

Example Usage of Case

jupiterlullaby: @MooreWV Yep, a blue ifrogz Case. I'm pretty good at dropping phones, so I figured a Case was in my best interest (and the phone's as well).
ArekahKane: @Jewel_731 and I rest my Case..
Principia: @Templesmith Regarding the Case itself, what the school did was equivalent to kicking someone out on racial grounds, and the court was...
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