control

1 noun

1 MAKE SB/STH DO WHAT YOU WANT (U) the ability or power to make someone or something do what you want: Generally your driving's OK, but your clutch control isn't very good.

(+ of/over): Babies are born with very little control over their movements. | have control of/over: I prefer living alone because I feel I have more control over my life. | under control (=being controlled or dealt with successfully): Don't worry, everything's under control. | out of control (=no longer possible to be controlled): The car spun out of control and hit a tree. | get out of control (=become impossible to control): The street party went on, getting louder and louder and more out of control. | lose control (of) (=not be able to control something any longer): He took a corner too fast, and lost control of the car. | beyond/outside sb's control (=impossible for you to control): Ten people had been killed, and it was obvious that the situation had gotten beyond the control of the authorities. | take/gain control (of) (=gain the ability to control something): Students are encouraged to take control of their own learning, rather than just depending on the teacher. | circumstances beyond sb's control (=a situation that you cannot control): Tonight's performance has been cancelled due to circumstances beyond our control.

2 POLITICAL/MILITARY POWER (U) the power to rule or govern a place, or the fact that you have more power than other political parties: have control of/over: By the end of the year, the rebels had control of the northern territories. | gain/take control (of) (=get control of a place that someone else was controlling): When the communists gained control they abolished the monarchy. | lose control (=not be able to control a place any longer): The Democrats have just lost control of Congress. | be/come under sb's control: The whole of this area came under Soviet control. | under the control of (=being controlled by a political party etc): The government has been overthrown and the country is now under the control of the military. | under British/Communist/enemy control: The city is now under Serbian control. | regain control (=gain control after you had lost it): The Conservatives are hoping to regain control of the seats taken from them in the last election. | have overall control BrE (=have more members of your political party in a council than other parties have, so that you control the council) | assume control (=get control of a country by defeating the government using military power): Lij Yasu seized the palace and assumed control of the country.

3 WAY OF LIMITING STH (C, U) a method or law for limiting the amount or growth of something

(+ of): the control of inflation | control of pests and diseases (+ on): The authorities imposed strict controls on the movement of cattle. | arms control (=control of the amount of weapons a country has): An arms control agreement between the superpowers has just been announced. | crowd control: Crowd control is a problem for the police at these demonstrations. | tight/rigid controls (=strict controls): The government favours the introduction of tighter controls on immigration. | rent/price/wage etc controls: Rent controls ensured that no one paid too much for housing.

4 DISEASE/FIRE ETC (U) the ability to stop something dangerous from getting worse or affecting more people: have sth under control: Firefighters now have the blaze under control. | bring sth under control: The plant was given six months to bring the pollution under control. | keep sth under control: Johnson's been struggling for years to keep his drinking under control.

5 ABILITY TO CONTROL EMOTIONS (U) the ability to remain calm even when you feel very angry, upset, or excited: It took a lot of control, but she managed not to cry. | lose control (=become extremely angry or upset and not be able to control your behaviour): Jim made me so mad, I just lost control and hit him. | self-control (=the ability to behave calmly even when you feel very upset, angry etc) | regain control (=succeed in behaving calmly again after you have been upset or angry): She felt tears welling up inside her again, but she managed to regain control.

6 be in control

a) to be able to control a situation, organization, or area because you have more power than anyone else

(+ of): The anti-government forces are still in control of the area.

b) to be able to control your emotions, deal with problems, and organize your life well: Weber's one of those guys who always seems to be in control.

c) to manage to control a difficult situation

(+ of): The police chief assured reporters that he was in control of events.

7 COMPANY/ORGANIZATION (U) the power to make all the important decisions in an organization or part of an organization: take control (of): Anne Williams will take control of the research division on August 5th. | have control of (=own a larger part of a company than other people so that you control that company): The Johnson family has effective control of the company, owning almost 60% of the shares. | lose control (of) (=not be able to control a company etc any longer): McAllister lost control of the company in 1988. | under the control of (=being controlled by someone): The college was under the control of a group of trustees.

8 MACHINE/VEHICLE (C) the thing that you press or turn to make a machine, vehicle, television etc work: Who's got the control for the video? | the volume control of a television set | be at the controls (=be controlling a vehicle or aircraft): The co-pilot is at the controls.

-see also: remote control

9 SKILL (U) the ability to make very skilful movements with a ball, pencil, tool etc: Johnson passes with good control, over to Abdul-Jabber.

10 AIRCRAFT ETC (U) the people who direct an activity, especially by giving instructions to an aircraft or spacecraft: air-traffic control

11 SCIENTIFIC TEST technical (C)

a) a person, group etc against which you compare another person or group that is very similar, in order to see if a particular quality is caused by something or happens by chance: control group/population: a control group of non-smoking women were compared to four groups of women smokers.

b) a thing that you already know the result for that is used in a scientific test, in order to show that your method is working correctly

-see also: controlled experiment

12 COMPUTER also control key (singular) a particular button on a computer that allows you to do certain operations: Press control and F2 to exit.

13 YOUR BODY the ability to control the movements of your body by using your muscles when dancing or doing physical exercise

14 CHECKING STH (U) the process of checking that something is correct, or the place where this is done: passport control | stock control

-see biological control, birth control, quality control, remote control 2 verb controlled, controlling (T)

1 MAKE SB/STH DO WHAT YOU WANT to make someone or something do what you want or behave in the way you want them to behave: The teacher can't control the class. | a huge company controlling half the world's coffee trade

2 MACHINE/PROCESS/SYSTEM to make a machine, process, or system work in a particular way: This button controls the temperature in the building. | control how/what/which etc: The valves in the heart control how quickly the blood is pumped around the body.

3 LIMIT if a government etc controls something, it uses laws or other methods to limit the amount or growth of something: Development in areas of outstanding natural beauty is strictly controlled.

4 POLITICAL/MILITARY POWER to rule or govern a place, or to have more power than other political parties: The Democrats continued to control the House until 1994. | Labour/Republican/Democrat controlled: a Conservative-controlled council

5 DISEASE/FIRE ETC to stop something dangerous from getting worse or affecting more people: The Ministry of Health has set up a programme to control the spread of AIDS.

6 EMOTION if you control your emotions, you succeed in behaving calmly and sensibly, even though you feel angry, upset, or excited: Sarah just can't control her temper. | control yourself (=succeed in behaving calmly and sensibly, even though you feel angry etc): She annoyed me intensely, but I managed to control myself and remain polite.

7 VOICE/EXPRESSION if you control your voice or the expression on your face, you make it seem normal, so that people cannot see that you are upset, angry, or excited: He controlled his voice, betraying nothing but a casual interest.

8 ANIMALS to kill animals when there are so many of them that they cause problems: measures to control rats in the city's sewers

9 BUSINESSES/ORGANIZATIONS to make sure that something is done correctly: The company strictly controls the quality of its products.

USAGE NOTE: CONTROL WORD CHOICE: control, manage, run, be in charge of, check on, inspect, monitor Most meanings of control (n, v) involve the idea of a person or other force having the power to change or stop something, without the people or things affected being able to do anything about it. People, organizations, machines etc control other people, organizations, their own or others actions, events, etc, sometimes from far away. Where you want to give the idea of people directing businesses etc, where the other people involved are nearby and perhaps allowed some say in the activity, you may use manage, run, or be in charge of: He's managing/running an electrical shop/project group/rock band. | Margaret is in charge of the school while Mrs Williams is away. When you want to talk about people, things, or activities, in order to see if they are correct, but without directly affecting them, you may use check on or inspect: We need to check on our sales. | The department is going to be inspected next week. | a security check. Control means the same as check on only in a few contexts, and usually only as the noun: quality control, stock control Monitor is a word meaning to watch and check on someone or something over a period of time. This can be done by a person or by a machine, often in a technical or official context.