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

The first depicts a soldier struggling to maneuver a cannon pulled by a team of horses into position, one of them out of control.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 2, 2026

Instead of a budget rampaging out of control, it’s the beasts themselves, particularly Irene, a stunning creation that resembles a glop of marmalade with eyeballs bubbling up to the surface.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 1, 2026

Supporters admired his willingness to cut interest rates and keep them low even as unemployment rates fell, which conventional wisdom said would cause inflation to spiral out of control.

From Barron's • Jun. 22, 2026

“If Nvidia was trading at 50 times earnings, we’d be having a much different conversation about how valuations are getting out of control and investors are no longer paying attention to multiples,” he said.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 18, 2026

About 200 miles from Otsuchi, the nuclear plant’s operators spent the night of the tsunami working frantically in pitch-black control rooms desperately trying to stop a chain reaction that was spinning out of control.

From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland