control
[kuh n-trohl]
- to exercise restraint or direction over; dominate; command: The car is difficult to control at high speeds. That zone is controlled by enemy troops.
- to hold in check; curb: to control a horse; to control one's emotions.
- to test or verify (a scientific experiment) by a parallel experiment or other standard of comparison.
- to eliminate or prevent the flourishing or spread of: to control a forest fire.
- Obsolete. to check or regulate (transactions), originally by means of a duplicate register.
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- the act or power of controlling; regulation; domination or command: Who's in control here?
- the situation of being under the regulation, domination, or command of another: The car is out of control.
- check or restraint: Her anger is under control.
- a legal or official means of regulation or restraint: to institute wage and price controls.
- Statistics. control variable(def 1).
- a person who acts as a check; controller.
- a device for regulating and guiding a machine, as a motor or airplane.
- controls, a coordinated arrangement of such devices.
- prevention of the flourishing or spread of something undesirable: rodent control.
- Baseball. the ability of a pitcher to throw the ball into the strike zone consistently: The rookie pitcher has great power but no control.
- Philately. any device printed on a postage or revenue stamp to authenticate it as a government issue or to identify it for bookkeeping purposes.
- a spiritual agency believed to assist a medium at a séance.
- the supervisor to whom an espionage agent reports when in the field.
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- control for, Statistics. to account for (variables in an analysis) by limiting the data under consideration to a comparison of like things: to control for demographic factors.
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Origin of control
Synonyms
See more synonyms for control on Thesaurus.com1. manage, govern, rule. 2. restrain, bridle, constrain. 6. management, government, reign, rule, mastery.
Synonym study
6. See authority.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for control
Contemporary Examples
He seemed by all appearances perfectly happy to let the Republicans control the state senate.
So not only will the GOP have control in the Senate, it will move the center of gravity on Capitol Hill hard to starboard.
Law has been rebuilt in the last 50 years to be an instrument of control, not a framework for human responsibility.
Aside from a blanket ban, social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit are nearly impossible to control.
In the not too distant future, these young people will control billions of dollars.
Historical Examples
A deal with the Rothschilds for control of the Spanish mines had fallen through.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
The danger of the control of an ignorant electorate has therefore passed.
The control of matter in putting it off and on at will, as He in His death and resurrection.
The Conquest of FearBasil King
A society that had escaped from fear would escape from their control.
The Conquest of FearBasil King
To hear her thus named moved him to a rage almost beyond his control.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
control
- to command, direct, or ruleto control a country
- to check, limit, curb, or regulate; restrainto control one's emotions; to control a fire
- to regulate or operate (a machine)
- to verify (a scientific experiment) by conducting a parallel experiment in which the variable being investigated is held constant or is compared with a standard
- to regulate (financial affairs)
- to examine and verify (financial accounts)
- to restrict or regulate the authorized supply of (certain substances, such as drugs)
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- power to direct or determineunder control; out of control
- a means of regulation or restraint; curb; checka frontier control
- (often plural) a device or mechanism for operating a car, aircraft, etc
- a standard of comparison used in a statistical analysis or scientific experiment
- a device that regulates the operation of a machine. A dynamic control is one that incorporates a governor so that it responds to the output of the machine it regulates
- (as modifier)control panel; control room
- spiritualism an agency believed to assist the medium in a séance
- Also called: control mark a letter, or letter and number, printed on a sheet of postage stamps, indicating authenticity, date, and series of issue
- one of a number of checkpoints on a car rally, orienteering course, etc, where competitors check in and their time, performance, etc, is recorded
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Word Origin
C15: from Old French conteroller to regulate, from contrerolle duplicate register, system of checking, from contre- counter- + rolle roll
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for control
v.
early 14c., "to check, verify, regulate," from Anglo-French contreroller "exert authority," from Medieval Latin contrarotulus "a counter, register," from Latin contra- "against" (see contra) + rotulus, diminutive of rota "wheel" (see roll (n.)). From a medieval method of checking accounts by a duplicate register. Sense of "dominate, direct" is mid-15c. Related: Controlled; controlling.
Control group in scientific experiments is attested from 1952 (from a sense of control attested since 1875).
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n.
1580s, from control (v.). Control freak is late 1960s slang.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
control
(kən-trōl′)- To verify or regulate a scientific experiment by conducting a parallel experiment or by comparing with another standard.
- To hold in restraint; check.
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- A standard of comparison for checking or verifying the results of an experiment.
- An individual or group used as a standard of comparison in a control experiment.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
control
[kən-trōl′]
- A standard of comparison for checking or verifying the results of an experiment. In an experiment to test the effectiveness of a new drug, for example, one group of subjects (the control group) receives an inactive substance or placebo , while a comparison group receives the drug being tested.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Idioms and Phrases with control
control
see out of control; spin control.
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.