out of control

Idioms  

1. Also, out of hand. No longer under management, direction, or regulation; unmanageable or unruly. For example, Housing costs are out of control, or The children were getting out of hand again. The first term uses control in the sense of “restraint,” a usage dating from the late 1500s; the variant uses hand in the sense of “power” or “authority,” and dates from the late 1800s.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

out of control

Local officials in Belgium said the blaze remained out of control as of Saturday afternoon.

From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026

This out of control monstrosity must be broken up.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

"In that moment I did feel really out of control."

From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026

True, inflation hardly looks out of control in Japan; the headline consumer-price index rose 1.7% in June from a year earlier.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

The impact ripped the boat’s railing out of Derek’s hands, and Natalie fell to the deck as her world went spinning, bumping, thrashing out of control.

From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz