(kās) noun
1. The state of things in a given instance; a special condition of affairs; juncture: What shall be done in this case?; also, the actual circumstance; the fact or facts: Such is not the case.
2. An event; contingency: in case of fire.
3. A particular instance or example: a case of pneumonia; a case of fraud.
4. Law A cause of action; a suit; an action.
5. State; physical condition or situation; plight.
6. Gram. a The syntactical relationship of a noun, pronoun, or adjective to other words in a sentence, as indicated, generally, in inflected languages, by declensional endings or, in non-inflected languages, by prepositions and word order. b The form of a word indicating this relationship. c These relationships or forms as a group. Evidence would indicate that primitive Indo–European had eight cases
—nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, instrumental, locative, and vocative. See SUBJECTIVE, POSSESSIVE, and OBJECTIVE for the cases surviving in Modern English.
7. Colloq. A peculiar or exceptional person. See synonyms under EVENT, PRECEDENT, SAMPLE.
—in any case No matter what; regardless.
—in case In the event that; if. [<F cas <L casus event <cadere fall; the grammatical cases (def. 6) were thought of as “falling” from the nominative]

(kās) noun
1. A box, sheath, bag, or other covering in which something is or may be kept.
2. A box and the quantity or number contained in it; a set.
3. Printing A tray, with compartments for holding type. Cases are commonly made in pairs, called upper or cap case, for capital letters, and lower case, for small letters, respectively.
4. The frame or casing for a door, window, etc., or a hollow box beside a casing, as for sash weights.
5. Archit. An outer facing of a building, as of stone over brick.
6. The cavity in the upper anterior part of the head of a sperm whale containing the spermaceti.
7. In bookbinding, a binding or cover made separately.
8. Her. The skin of an animal.
9. Obs. The clothes of a person; also, the exterior, in any sense.
10. Obs. A brace or pair, as of pistols.
—v.t. cased, cas·ing
1. To cover with a case; incase.
2. Slang To look over; inspect.
3. Obs. To flay. [<AF casse <L capsa box <capere take, hold]