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
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
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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