Be on someone’s case


an instance of the occurrence, existence, etc., of something:
sailing in such a storm was a case of poor judgment.
the actual state of things:
that is not the case.
a question or problem of moral conduct; matter:
a case of conscience.
situation; circ-mstance; plight:
mine is a sad case.
a person or thing whose plight or situation calls for attention:
this family is a hardship case.
a specific occurrence or matter requiring discussion, decision, or investigation, as by officials or law-enforcement authorities:
the police studied the case of the missing jewels.
a stated argument used to support a viewpoint:
he presented a strong case against the proposed law.
an instance of disease, injury, etc., requiring medical or surgical attention or treatment; individual affliction:
she had a severe case of chicken pox.
a medical or surgical patient.
law.

a suit or action at law; cause.
a set of facts giving rise to a legal claim, or to a defense to a legal claim.

grammar.

a category in the inflection of nouns, pr-nouns, and adjectives, noting the syntactic relation of these words to other words in the sentence, indicated by the form or the position of the words.
a set of such categories in a particular language.
the meaning of or the meaning typical of such a category.
such categories or their meanings collectively.

informal. a peculiar or unusual person:
he’s a case.
get / be on someone’s case, slang. to bother or nag someone; meddle in someone’s affairs:
her brother is always on her case about getting married. why do you keep getting on my case?
get off someone’s case, slang. to stop bothering or criticizing someone or interfering in someone’s affairs:
i’ve had enough of your advice, so just get off my case.
have a case on, slang. to be infatuated with:
he had a case on the girl next door.
in any case, regardless of circ-mstances; be that as it may; anyhow:
in any case, there won’t be any necessity for you to come along.
in case, if it should happen that; if:
in case i am late, don’t wait to start dinner.
in case of, in the event of; if there should be:
in case of an error in judgment, the group leader will be held responsible.
in no case, under no condition; never:
he should in no case be allowed to get up until he has completely recovered from his illness.
noun
a single instance, occurrence, or example of something
an instance of disease, injury, hardship, etc
a question or matter for discussion: the case before the committee
a specific condition or state of affairs; situation
a set of arguments supporting a particular action, cause, etc

a person attended or served by a doctor, social worker, solicitor, etc; patient or client
(as modifier): a case study

an action or suit at law or something that forms sufficient grounds for bringing an action: he has a good case
the evidence offered in court to support a claim

(grammar)

a set of grammatical categories of nouns, pr-nouns, and adjectives, marked by inflection in some languages, indicating the relation of the noun, adjective, or pr-noun to other words in the sentence
any one of these categories: the nominative case

(informal) a person in or regarded as being in a specified condition: the accident victim was a hospital case, he’s a mental case
(informal) a person of a specified character (esp in the phrase a hard case)
(informal) an odd person; eccentric
(us, informal) love or infatuation
short for case shot see canister (sense 2b)
as the case may be, according to the circ-mstances
(adverb) in any case, no matter what; anyhow: we will go in any case
(adverb) in case

in order to allow for eventualities
(as conjunction) in order to allow for the possibility that: take your coat in case it rains
(us) if

(preposition) in case of, in the event of
(adverb) in no case, under no circ-mstances: in no case should you fight back
noun

a container, such as a box or chest
(in combination): suitcase, briefcase

an outer cover or sheath, esp for a watch
a receptacle and its contents: a case of ammunition
a pair or brace, esp of pistols
(architect) another word for casing (sense 3)
a completed cover ready to be fastened to a book to form its binding
(printing) a tray divided into many compartments in which a compositor keeps individual metal types of a particular size and style. cases were originally used in pairs, one (the upper case) for capitals, the other (the lower case) for small letters see also upper case, lower case
(metallurgy) the surface of a piece of steel that has been case-hardened
verb (transitive)
to put into or cover with a case: to case the machinery
(slang) to inspect carefully (esp a place to be robbed)
n.

early 13c., “what befalls one; state of affairs,” from old french cas “an event, happening, situation, quarrel, trial,” from latin casus “a chance, occasion, opportunity; accident, mishap,” literally “a falling,” from cas-, past participle stem of cadere “to fall, sink, settle down, decline, perish” (used widely: of the setting of heavenly bodies, the fall of troy, suicides), from pie root -kad- “to lay out, fall or make fall, yield, break up” (cf. sanskrit sad- “to fall down,” armenian chacnum “to fall, become low,” perhaps also middle irish casar “hail, lightning”). the notion being “that which falls” as “that which happens” (cf. befall).

meaning “instance, example” is from c.1300. meaning “actual state of affairs” is from c.1400. given widespread extended and transferred senses in english in law (16c.), medicine (18c.), etc.; the grammatical sense (late 14c.) was in latin. u.s. slang meaning “person” is from 1848. in case “in the event” is recorded from mid-14c. case history is from 1879, originally medical; case study “study of a particular case” is from 1879, originally legal.

“receptacle,” early 14c., from anglo-french and old north french c-sse (old french ch-sse “case, reliquary;” modern french châsse), from latin capsa “box, repository” (especially for books), from capere “to take, hold” (see capable).

meaning “outer protective covering” is from late 14c. also used from 1660s with a sense “frame” (e.g. staircase, cas-m-nt). artillery sense is from 1660s, from case-shot “small projectiles put in cases” (1620s). its application in the printing trade (first recorded 1580s) to the two trays where compositors keep their types in separate compartments for easy access led to upper-case letter for a capital (1862) and lower-case for small letters.

“the cases, or receptacles, for the type, which are always in pairs, and termed the ‘upper’ and the ‘lower,’ are formed of two oblong wooden frames, divided into compartments or boxes of different dimensions, the upper case containing ninety-eight and the lower fifty-four. in the upper case are placed the capital, small capital, and accented letters, also figures, signs for reference to notes &c.; in the lower case the ordinary running letter, points for punctuation, sp-ces for separating the words, and quadrats for filling up the short lines.” [“the literary gazette,” jan. 29, 1859]

v.

“enclose in a case,” 1570s, from case (n.2). related: cased; casing. meaning “examine, inspect” (usually prior to robbing) is from 1915, american english slang, perhaps from the notion of giving a place a look on all sides (cf. technical case (v.) “cover the outside of a building with a different material,” 1707).

case (kās)
n.
an occurrence of a disease or disorder.

a grammatical category indicating whether nouns and pr-nouns are functioning as the subject of a sentence (nominative case) or the object of a sentence (objective case), or are indicating possession (possessive case). he is in the nominative case, him is in the objective case, and his is in the possessive case. in a language such as english, nouns do not change their form in the nominative or objective case. only pr-nouns do. thus, ball stays the same in both “the ball is thrown,” where it is the subject, and in “harry threw the ball,” where it is the object.

noun

an odd, eccentric person; card, character (1833+)
: lefty gave the bank a case

verb

(also case out) to inspect, scrutinize, esp with a view to robbery or burglary •keep the cases in the sense ”keep close watch” is attested fr 1856, with reference to faro: i’ve cased this one and it’s ripe (1914+ underworld)

related terms

b-tterfly case, couch case, drop case, get down to cases, get off someone’s case, get on someone’s case, have a case of the dumb–ss, have a case on someone, headcase, make a federal case out of something, nutball, off someone’s case, on someone’s case, worst-case scenario
computer-aided software engineering
in addition to the idiom beginning with
case

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