A hard case

Case Case, 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]

Note: 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]