control
• noun 1 the power to influence people’s behaviour or the course of events. 2 the restriction of an activity or phenomenon. 3 a means of limiting or regulating something: exchange controls. 4 a device by which a machine is regulated. 5 the place where something is verified or from which an activity is directed: passport control. 6 a person or thing used as a standard of comparison for checking the results of a survey or experiment. • verb (controlled, controlling) 1 have control or command of. 2 limit or regulate. — PHRASES in control able to direct a situation, person, or activity. out of control no longer manageable. under control (of a danger or emergency) being dealt with or contained successfully. — DERIVATIVES controllability noun controllable adjective controllably adverb controller noun. — ORIGIN originally in the sense verify accounts : from Old French contreroller ‘keep a copy of a roll of accounts’, from Latin contrarotulus ‘copy of a roll’.
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