control freak

1. a person having a strong need for control over people or situations.

control freak

noun

1. a person with an obsessive need to be in control of what is happening

Word History and Origins

Origin of control freak¹

1975–80

Example Sentences

He’s the opposite of a control freak — a macro-manager who’s willing to let others make key decisions.

From Washington Post

Yet tightly wound control freaks might be the ones who end up benefiting the most from the Taoist philosophy of wu wei.

From Ozy

Hollywood, arguably the most ego-filled industry in the world and run largely by control freaks, has been humbled—if only temporarily—by a public-health crisis it had no way of controlling.

From Time

The traditionalists and control freaks make the NCAA’s less restrictive transfer policy seem so scary, such a violation of their right to be blissfully unconcerned.

From Washington Post

Soon, Calvin becomes a control freak, emotionally manipulating his quirky creation into doing his bidding.

From The Daily Beast

As Bree is meticulously polishing her silver, she dissolves from control freak into grieving widow.

From The Daily Beast

Control freak that you are, you tend to keep yourself on this side of self-destruction.

From The Daily Beast

And Jobs was a control freak who cowed his executives and micromanaged everything down to the plastic covers on the iPads.

From The Daily Beast

Les Grossman taps into a giant part of how Cruise actually comes off in the press—Empire control freak at its most monstrous.

From The Daily Beast