cruise control

American

noun

a system, available for some automobiles, motorcycles, etc., that automatically maintains a vehicle's speed by taking control of the accelerator.

cruise control British

noun

a system in a road vehicle that automatically maintains a selected speed until cancelled

"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

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Many artists at that point would have switched on cruise control, offering subtle variations on what had worked so far.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 17, 2026

The Polish second seed was in cruise control against the Czech player as the sun went down at John Cain Arena, sprinting to the finish 6-2, 6-3 in front of a vocal group of fans.

From Barron's • Jan. 22, 2026

It includes some of our must-have tech, such as automatic emergency braking and steering, adaptive cruise control with lane centering, and automatic high beams.

From MarketWatch • Nov. 26, 2025

This time, it was Nestor Cortes who was in cruise control, spinning six scoreless innings while retiring his first 16 batters.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 23, 2025

They were heading along what looked like an interstate highway, with the cruise control set to an even sixty-five.

From "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023