case

Definition

noun
  1. a possible crime and its investigation by the police
    Examples We have three detectives working on the case. • The police are treating the case as murder or are treating it as a murder case. • We had six cases of looting during the night.
  2. a set of arguments or facts put forward by one side in legal proceedings
    Examples Defence counsel put his case. • There is a strong case against the accused.
    Usage the case rests
    all the arguments for one side have been put forward
    Usage no case to answer
    a submission by the defence (after the prosecution has put its case) that the case should be dismissed
verb
  • Usage to case a joint
    to look at a building carefully before deciding how to break into it
    (slang)
COMMENT A case is referred to by the names of the parties, the date and the reference source where details of it can be found: Smith v. Jones 2007 2 W.L.R. 250 This shows that the case involved Smith as plaintiff and Jones as defendant, it was heard in 2007, and is reported in the second volume of the Weekly Law Reports for that year on page 250.
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