control
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.
Biology. (of an organism) to initiate an internal response to external stimuli.
Obsolete. to check or regulate (transactions), originally by means of a duplicate register.
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.
Biology. an organism’s ability to initiate an internal response to external stimuli (distinguished from regulation).
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.
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.
Origin of control
1Other words for control
Other words from control
- con·trol·la·ble, adjective, noun
- con·trol·la·bil·i·ty [kuhn-troh-luh-bil-i-tee], /kənˌtroʊ ləˈbɪl ɪ ti/, con·trol·la·ble·ness, noun
- con·trol·la·bly, adverb
- con·trol·less, adjective
- con·trol·ling·ly, adverb
- non·con·trol·la·ble, adjective
- non·con·trol·la·bly, adverb
- non·con·trolled, adjective
- non·con·trol·ling, adjective
- o·ver·con·trol, verb (used with object), o·ver·con·trolled, o·ver·con·trol·ling, noun
- pre·con·trol, noun, verb (used with object), pre·con·trolled, pre·con·trol·ling.
- qua·si-con·trolled, adjective
- qua·si-con·trol·ling, adjective
- sub·con·trol, verb (used with object), sub·con·trolled, sub·con·trol·ling.
- su·per·con·trol, noun
- un·con·trolled, adjective
- un·con·trol·ling, adjective
- well-con·trolled, adjective
Words Nearby control
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use control in a sentence
Companies like Rice Up still promote rice cakes as a whole-grain option for weight control.
The Rise and Fall of the Rice Cake, America’s One-Time Favorite Health Snack | Brenna Houck | September 17, 2020 | EaterI was talking about what we’re doing is under control, but I’m not talking about the virus.
Timeline: The 124 times Trump has downplayed the coronavirus threat | Aaron Blake, JM Rieger | September 17, 2020 | Washington PostAlexander also requested an extraordinary amount of control over the reports, asking that he be allowed to review them before publication and even make edits.
The Trump administration’s politicization of coronavirus comes to a head | Aaron Blake | September 16, 2020 | Washington PostAt the beginning, before anybody knew what it was, I spoke with President Xi, and he said, we are doing it well, we have it under control.
Trump’s incoherent defense of his coronavirus response | Aaron Blake | September 16, 2020 | Washington PostA month later, a Fox News poll found 70 percent of likely voters felt the pandemic was “not at all” or “somewhat” under control.
Trump, in town hall, says he wouldn’t have done anything differently on pandemic | Colby Itkowitz, Josh Dawsey, Felicia Sonmez, John Wagner | September 16, 2020 | Washington Post
From there we took the train to Nice, France, but the French border control caught us and sent us back to Italy.
Spin control began, Florida-style: the opinion only covers some counties, some people, some times.
The Back Alley, Low Blow-Ridden Fight to Stop Gay Marriage in Florida Is Finally Over | Jay Michaelson | January 5, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTHe seemed by all appearances perfectly happy to let the Republicans control the state senate.
Mario Cuomo: An OK Governor, but a Far Better Person | Michael Tomasky | January 2, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTThe police cannot ultimately control public opinion unilaterally.
So not only will the GOP have control in the Senate, it will move the center of gravity on Capitol Hill hard to starboard.
The Democrats’ Black Hole—and What They Can Do About It | Michael Tomasky | December 31, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTSolely over one man therein thou hast quite absolute control.
Pearls of Thought | Maturin M. BallouIn a few minutes, however, he had it again under control, and they soon reached the berg.
The Giant of the North | R.M. BallantyneA certain amount of his ill-humour vented, Tressan made an effort to regain his self-control.
St. Martin's Summer | Rafael SabatiniThe nativesʼ anxiety to oust the Spaniards was far stronger than their wish to be under American, or indeed any foreign, control.
The Philippine Islands | John ForemanThe marvelous improvements in mechanism and tone production and control in 1886 to 1913 by Robt.
The Recent Revolution in Organ Building | George Laing Miller
British Dictionary definitions for control
/ (kənˈtrəʊl) /
to command, direct, or rule: to control a country
to check, limit, curb, or regulate; restrain: to 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)
power to direct or determine: under control; out of control
a means of regulation or restraint; curb; check: a 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
Origin of control
1Derived forms of control
- controllable, adjective
- controllability or controllableness, noun
- controllably, adverb
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
Scientific definitions for 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.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Other Idioms and Phrases with control
see out of control; spin control.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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