case
part of speech
noun (a case, cases)
meaning for a pupil
1) A case is a container or box for keeping or carrying things: a pencil case, a suitcase, a phone case. tree →
2) A case is one example or situation of something: a case of chickenpox, in that case. tree →
3) A case is a crime or problem that the police, a detective or a court looks into. tree →
4) «In case» means as a plan for something that might happen: take a coat in case it rains. tree →
5) In writing, upper case means capital letters and lower case means small letters. tree →
6) A case can also mean the condition or state someone is in, especially a bad one. tree →
sense in the lessons
In school a pencil case holds pens and pencils; pupils learn upper case and lower case letters. In safety lessons «in case of emergency» or «in case of fire» starts instructions: «In case of fire, use the stairs, not the lift». In stories and mysteries, detectives solve cases. In maths and logic «in this case» means for this example. Phrases: in case, in case of, just in case, in any case, in that case, pencil case, upper case, lower case, case closed.
examples
- I keep my pens in my pencil case. tree →
- Take an umbrella in case it rains. tree →
- In case of fire, leave by the nearest exit. tree →
- The detective solved the case. tree →
- There were three cases of flu in our class. tree →
- Write your name in upper case letters. tree →
- «It's raining.» «In that case, let's play indoors.» tree →
- Pack a plaster just in case. tree →
- The poor king was in a terrible case. tree →
note
Countable: cases. Trap: «in case» (as a precaution, before something happens) is not the same as «if»: «Take a coat in case it rains» means take it now; «Take a coat if it rains» means only when it rains. A «suitcase» is a case for clothes when travelling. In maths, «in each case» means for every example.
In the corpora
- A rental deposit is money held in case of damage, and it comes back if the home is left in good condition.
- AI is good at the usual cases it has seen many times and often weak at unusual or brand-new ones.
- In every case it is a strong guess, not a certainty, so people still check, decide and stay in charge.
- It was reported that lawyers in America handed a court past cases that a chatbot had invented, and that the judge fined them.
- Chatbots can produce made-up cases, books or quotes that sound real; even experts must check them.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «case» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.