charity case
14
4.6
- noun
- /ˈtʃɛrɪti keɪs/
- Offensive
:
[término ofensivo para una persona que recibe ayuda]
- After losing his job, he worried he would be seen as a charity case by his friends.
- charity case, I said
Examples
-
You make me sound like some sort of charity case.
-
Must be nice being someone else's charity case.
-
We're not a charity case.
-
Am I a charity case to you?
-
So I'm just a charity case?
-
I'm not a charity case, all right?
-
I know this will sound silly, but it would just make me feel like I'm less of a charity case.
-
She had come to the Home as a charity case; she had stayed on as an employee.
Fiction book (2002) -
She thinks I'm a charity case.
Fiction book (1992) -
Though she is drawn to the residents of Gilead, Iowa, she resents that they regard her as a charity case.
Academic text (2018)
Synonyms
Antonyms
How Needy
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound plainly combines 'charity' (assistance) and 'case' (an instance/situation/person in need), so its meaning — a person regarded as needing charity — is directly inferable from the parts. This noun-noun composition is a common, productive pattern in English, so a B1 learner who knows both words can readily deduce the sense, though the phrase often carries a mildly pejorative nuance.
Etymology
Charity case may come from the image of a person at a charity who was a case on a list to get help. So today calling someone a charity case means they are seen as 'needing help' or 'pitied'.