(chiefly UK) An issue or incident (originally, a legal case) arousing widespread controversy or public debate.

(idiomatic) A person or thing that is hopeless or futile.

(chiefly US) Alternative form of cause célèbre

(law) the case title for a cause of action/lawsuit; a description of the parties involved, such as Johnson v. Smith.

(US, law) The standard by which a police officer may make an arrest or conduct a personal or property search, based on the likelihood of a criminal act etc.

(law) A condition under which one party would be entitled to sue another. / (law) A civil lawsuit.

(medicine) A cause for an effect in a system that is not a constituent of that system, especially causes of personal health problems or death, such as poison, weapon wounds, or accident.

plural of external cause

(intransitive) To cause controversy, or raise a disturbance.

(law) An event which, in a natural and continuous sequence, unbroken by any efficient intervening cause, produces an injury, and without which the injury would not have occurred.