A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language (1806)
(Noah Webster 1806)
Cases Plural of "Case". n. a covering, sheath, outer part of a thing, box, state, condition, variation of nouns Cases Plural of "Case" v. t. to cover with or put in a case
1. A covering, box or sheath; that which incloses or contains; as a case for knives; a case for books; a watch case; a printers case; a pillow case
2. The outer part of a building.
3. A certain quantity; as a case of crown glass.
4. A building unfurnished.
CASE, verb transitive
1. To cover with a case; to surround with any material that shall inclose or defend.
2. To put in a case or box.
3. To strip off a case covering, or the skin.
CASE, noun Literally, that which falls, comes, or happens; an event. Hence, the particular state, condition, or circumstances that befall a person, or in which he is placed; as, make the case your own; this is the case with my friend; this is his present case
2. The state of the body, with respect to health or disease; as a case of fever; he is in a consumptive case; his case is desperate.
To be in good case is to be fat, and this phrase is customarily abridged, to be in case; applied to beasts, but not to men, except in a sense rather ludicrous.
3. A question; a state of facts involving a question for discussion or decision; as, the lawyer stated the case
4. A cause or suit in court; as, the case was tried at the last term. In this sense, case is nearly synonymous with cause, whose primary sense is nearly the same.
5. In grammar, the inflection of nouns, or a change of termination, to express a difference of relation in the word to others, or to the thing represented. The variation of nouns and adjectives is called declension; both case and declension signifying, falling or leaning from the first state of the word. Thus, liber is a book; libri, of a book; libro, to a book. In other words, case denotes a variation in the termination of a noun, to show how the noun acts upon the verb with which it is connected, or is acted upon by it, or by an agent. The cases, except the nominative, are called oblique cases.
In case is a phrase denoting condition or supposition; literally, in the event or contingency; if it should so fall out or happen.
Put the case suppose the event, or a certain state of things.
Action on the case in law, is an action in which the whole cause of complaint is set out in the writ.