catch a case

catch a case (third-person singular simple present catches a case, present participle catching a case, simple past and past participle caught a case)

1. To be infected with a disease; used with of.
   • 2013 March 25, Gregory T. Cushman, Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World: A Global Ecological History, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 104:

     In 1901, he caught a case of the flu, fell into a moribund state lasting another year, and died without ever fathering a child.64 Niue was hardly alone in this experience. Soap sales benefited enormously from the deadly wave of bubonic […]

2. (slang, figurative, by extension, informal) To be overcome by or enthused about anything; used with of.
   • 2011 June 3, Dr. George Foxx, Caught up in the Boogie Woogie World, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 7:

     Four years ago on New Year's Eve, he was partying in Tampa and caught a case of the boogie woogie while sitting in his van, listening to music, but charged with DUI. As an attorney, Mr. Lewis explained that some of the charges are […]

3. (slang) To commit a crime and be arrested for it, especially a violent or sexual crime.
   • 2000, Earl Roberts, I Beg Your Damn Pardon - Was It Something I Said?: The Poetic Prose and Unchained Thoughts of a Contemporary Black Man, Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 35:

     If just one more damn high rate, red-lining, premium-gorging, inner-city auto insurance company tries to stick me up just because I choose to live and drive in a black city, I just might catch a case! If just one more white landlord or […]