to come to the point; attend to or deal with the essential facts or the actualmatter at hand; come down to specifics. The expression dates back to about 1900 and alludes to a cardgame in which cards are drawn from a box containing the dealer's pack, and players place bets on a specialboard or layout. When only one card is left in the box, it is known as the casecard and thus down to cases means down to the last card in play.