*case*

n. A case with shelves for holding books, esp. one with glazed doors. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. the part of the skull that encloses the brain.
Syn. -- cranium, brainpan. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. a small suitcase with a handle; it is used for carrying papers or files or books. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A small traveling case or bandbox; formerly, a chest. [ 1913 Webster ]

A capcase for your linen and your plate. Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Carcass. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A case for visiting cards. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A box and its contents; the quantity contained in a box; as, a case of goods; a case of instruments. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Print.) A shallow tray divided into compartments or “boxes” for holding type. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. An inclosing frame; a casing; as, a door case; a window case. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Mining) A small fissure which admits water to the workings. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Cased p. pr. & vb. n. Casing. ] 1. To cover or protect with, or as with, a case; to inclose. [ 1913 Webster ]

The man who, cased in steel, had passed whole days and nights in the saddle. Prescott. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To strip the skin from; as, to case a box. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. cas, fr. L. casus, fr. cadere to fall, to happen. Cf. Chance. ] 1. Chance; accident; hap; opportunity. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

By aventure, or sort, or cas. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge. Deut. xxiv. 13. [ 1913 Webster ]

If the case of the man be so with his wife. Matt. xix. 10. [ 1913 Webster ]

And when a lady's in the case
You know all other things give place. Gay. [ 1913 Webster ]

You think this madness but a common case. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

I am in case to justle a constable, Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

A proper remedy in hypochondriacal cases. Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let us consider the reason of the case, for nothing is law that is not reason. Sir John Powell. [ 1913 Webster ]

Not one case in the reports of our courts. Steele. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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
Case 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To propose hypothetical cases. [ Obs. ] “Casing upon the matter.” L'Estrange. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. to turn into cheese; -- of milk. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. to undergo caseation; -- of dead tissue. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ Cf. F. caséation. See Casein. ] (Med.) A degeneration of animal tissue into a cheesy or curdy mass. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Arch.) (a) The space between two principals or girders. (b) One of the joists framed between a pair of girders in naked flooring. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a book in which detailed written records of cases are kept and which are a source of information for subsequent work. Such books are often used as supplements to texts in law schools. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

adj. 1. covered or protected with or as if with a case; as, knights cased in steel.
Syn. -- encased, incased. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. same as bound; -- of books.
Syn. -- covered. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. the quantity contained in a case.
Syn. -- case. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. 1. To subject to a process which converts the surface of iron into steel. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To render insensible to good influences. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Having the surface hardened, as iron tools. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Hardened against, or insusceptible to, good influences; rendered callous by persistence in wrongdoing or resistance of good influences; -- said of persons. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act or process of converting the surface of iron into steel. Ure. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Casehardening is now commonly effected by cementation with charcoal or other carbonizing material, the depth and degree of hardening (carbonization) depending on the time during which the iron is exposed to the heat. See Cementation. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. caséique, fr. L. caseus cheese. ] Of or pertaining to cheese; as, caseic acid. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. caséine, fr. L. caseur cheese. Cf. Cheese. ] (Physiol. Chem.) A proteid substance present in both the animal and the vegetable kingdom. In the animal kingdom it is chiefly found in milk, and constitutes the main part of the curd separated by rennet; in the vegetable kingdom it is found more or less abundantly in the seeds of leguminous plants. Its reactions resemble those of alkali albumin. [ Written also caseine. ]

1. A knife carried in a sheath or case. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A large table knife; -- so called from being formerly kept in a case. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. casemate, fr. It. casamatta, prob. from casa house + matto, f. matta, mad, weak, feeble, dim. from the same source as E. -mate in checkmate. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. (Fort.) A bombproof chamber, usually of masonry, in which cannon may be placed, to be fired through embrasures; or one capable of being used as a magazine, or for quartering troops. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Arch.) A hollow molding, chiefly in cornices. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Furnished with, protected by, or built like, a casemate. Campbell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Shortened fr. encasement. See Incase 1st Case, and cf. Incasement. ] (Arch.) A window sash opening on hinges affixed to the upright side of the frame into which it is fitted. (Poetically) A window. [ 1913 Webster ]

A casement of the great chamber window. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having a casement or casements. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Casein + -ose. ] (Physiol.Chem.) A soluble product (proteose) formed in the gastric and pancreatic digestion of casein and caseinogen. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. [ L. caseus. Cf. Casein. ] Of, pertaining to, or resembling, cheese; having the qualities of cheese; cheesy. [ 1913 Webster ]

Caseous degeneration, a morbid process, in scrofulous or consumptive persons, in which the products of inflammation are converted into a cheesy substance which is neither absorbed nor organized. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. caserne. ] A lodging for soldiers in garrison towns, usually near the rampart; barracks. Bescherelle. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Mil.) A collection of small projectiles, inclosed in a case or canister. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In the United States a case shot is a thin spherical or oblong cast-iron shell containing musket balls and a bursting charge, with a time fuse; -- called in Europe shrapnel. In Europe the term case shot is applied to what in the United States is called canister. Wilhelm. [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Law) The system of teaching law in which the instruction is primarily a historical and inductive study of leading or selected cases, with or without the use of textbooks for reference and collateral reading. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

‖n. [ L. caseus cheese. ] Same as Casein. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) A worm or grub that makes for itself a case. See Caddice. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. the housing for a crankshaft and connecting parts in an internal-combustion engine. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. To strip; to undress. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The surrounding frame into which a door shuts. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ Cf. Enchase. ] To inclose in or as if in a case. See Incase. Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. covered or protected with or as if with a case; as, products encased in leatherette.
Syn. -- cased, incased. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ Cf. Casement. ] 1. The act of encasing; also, that which encases. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Biol.) An old theory of generation similar to emboîtement. See Ovulist. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The covering of an insect, esp. the elytra of beetles. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Incased p. pr. & vb. n. Incasing. ] [ F. encaisser; pref. en- (L. in) + caisse case. See Case a box, and cf. Encase, Enchase. ] To inclose in a case; to inclose; to cover or surround with something solid. [ 1913 Webster ]

Rich plates of gold the folding doors incase. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. Casement. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. The act or process of inclosing with a case, or the state of being incased. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which forms a case, covering, or inclosure. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Cased or covered with iron, as a vessel; ironclad. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Print.) Pertaining to, or kept in, the lower case; -- used to denote the small letters, in distinction from capitals and small capitals; as, lowercase letters a and b and c etc.. Contrasted with uppercase. See the Note under 1st Case, n., 3. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A case to keep needles. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A case for holding paper money; a wallet.
Syn. -- wallet, billfold. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adv. [ Par + case. ] Perchance; by chance. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. [ OE. per cas. See Parcase. ] Perhaps; perchance. [ Obs. ] Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]