out of control

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.

Example Sentences

However, McDonald’s chief financial officer Ian Borden said on the recent earnings call that the company has managed to keep expenses from getting out of control.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

We have ICE claiming that the protesters are out of control—throwing stuff, ransacking the building, shattering entrances—then we’ve got the Portland police saying: No, they’re not.

Read more on Slate

Investors took fright that the deficit will spiral out of control and were mollified somewhat Friday morning when Britain’s Treasury leaked that rosier economic forecasts might leave her with a smaller budget gap.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The home secretary is likely to acknowledge on Monday that the UK's borders are "out of control".

Read more on BBC

The water is poisoned, economic inequality is out of control and immigrants have become an easy target.

Read more on Los Angeles Times