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From Middle Englishcas, from Old Frenchcas(“an event”), from Latincāsus(“a falling, a fall; accident, event, occurrence; occasion, opportunity; noun case”), perfect passive participle of cadō(“to fall, to drop”).
Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.
1586, William Warner, “The Fourth Booke. Chapter XXXVI.”, in Albions England. Or Historicall Map of the Same Island:, London: George Robinson for Thomas Cadman,, →OCLC, page 174:
Thus vvhilſt he hopt he hild her leaſt, ſo altereth the cace / VVith ſuch as ſhe, Ah ſuch it is to build on ſuch a face.
Ne wist he how to turne, nor to what place: / Was never wretched man in such a wofull cace.
1726, Nathan Bailey, John Worlidge, Dictionarium Rusticum, Urbanicum & Botanicum:
Mares which are over-fat, hold with much difficulty; whereas those that are but in good case and plump, conceive with the greatest readiness and ease.
A piece of work, specifically defined within a profession; the set of tasks involved in addressing the situation of a specific person or event.
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.
We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case. Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke.
The case was that of a murder. It had an element of mystery about it, however, which was puzzling the authorities. A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff. These properties were known to have belonged to a toddy drawer. He had disappeared.
(academia) An instance or event as a topic of study.
The teaching consists of theory lessons and case studies.
“Two or three months more went by ; the public were eagerly awaiting the arrival of this semi-exotic claimant to an English peerage, and sensations, surpassing those of the Tichbourne case, were looked forward to with palpitating interest. […]”
The accusative case canonically indicates a direct object. Latin has six cases, and remnants of a seventh.
1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 6, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 292:
Now, the Subject of either an indicative or a subjunctive Clause is always assigned Nominativecase, as we see from: (16) (a) I know [that they/*them/*their leave for Hawaii tomorrow] (16) (b) I demand [that they/*them/*their leave for Hawaii tomorrow] By contrast, the Subject of an infinitive Clause is assigned Objectivecase, as we see from: (17) I want [them/*they/*their to leave for Hawaii tomorrow] And the Subject of a gerund Clause is assigned either Objective or Genitivecase: cf. (18) I don't like the idea of [them/their/*they leaving for Hawaii tomorrow]
Poor fellow, just as I thought! It's a case with him, anybody can see that. He is thinking about Christine, for a certainty. Lovers always take to stargazing and moonlight dreaming — it's part of their complaint.
1876, The New York Drama, volumes 1-2, page 1:
I thought it only an amourette when you told me. It was a fire — a conflagration; subdue it. I saw it was a case, and I advised you to try — dissipation.
Usage notes
In medicine, in precise and respectful usage, a case is not a patient and a patient is not a case, whereas a patient has a case. In loose usage, however, the words are often treated as synonymous.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
(printing,historical) 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 price of a case (five shillings piece bad) from the smasher is about one shilling; an alderman (two and sixpence) about sixpence; a peg (shilling) about threepence; a downer or sprat (sixpence) about twopence.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
(pokerslang) The last remaining card of a particular rank.
He drew the case eight!
2006, David Apostolico, Lessons from the Professional Poker Tour, page 21:
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.
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.
2014, Amy Goodman, From COINTELPRO to Snowden, the FBI Burglars Speak Out After 43 Years of Silence (Part 2), Democracy Now!, January 8, 2014, 0:49 to 0:57:
Bonnie worked as a daycare director. She helped case the FBI office by posing as a college student interested in becoming an FBI agent.
Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “quasy”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG