control definition

English control definition

Alternative forms

• (computer key): See Ctrl
• comptrol, comptroll (archaic)
• controll, controul, countrol (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English controllen, from Old French contrerole, from Medieval Latin contrarotulum (“a counter-roll or register used to verify accounts”), from Latin contra (“against, opposite”) + Medieval Latin rotulus, Latin rotula (“roll, a little wheel”), diminutive of rota (“a wheel”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kənˈtɹəʊl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kənˈtɹoʊl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊl, -oʊl
• Hyphenation: con‧trol
• Homophone: Ctrl

Verb

control (third-person singular simple present controls, present participle controlling, simple past and past participle controlled)

1. (transitive) To exercise influence over; to suggest or dictate the behavior of.

   Synonyms: besteer, bewield, manage, puppeteer, rule

   With a simple remote, he could control the toy truck.

   • 2013 May 17, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, in The Guardian Weekly‎^[1], volume 188, number 23, page 19:

     In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […]  The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra–wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.

2. (transitive, statistics) (construed with for) To design (an experiment) so that the effects of one or more variables are reduced or eliminated.
3. (transitive, archaic) to verify the accuracy of (something or someone, especially a financial account) by comparison with another account
4. (transitive, obsolete) to call to account, to take to task, to challenge
   • c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, OCLC 8728872, lines 94–99, page 64:

     I fortuned to come in,
     Thys rebell to behold,
     Whereof I hym controld;
     But he sayde that he wolde
     Agaynst my mynde and wyll
     In my church hawke styll.

5. (transitive) to hold in check, to curb, to restrain

Hyponyms

• take control, take the reins, hold the reins

Antonyms

• defy, rebel, resist (not to be controlled)
• obey, submit (to be controlled)

Derived terms

See also

• regulate

Translations

Noun

control (countable and uncountable, plural controls)

1. (countable, uncountable) Influence or authority over something.

   The government has complete control over the situation.

2. The method and means of governing the performance of any apparatus, machine or system, such as a lever, handle or button.
3. Restraint or ability to contain one's movements or emotions, or self-control.
   • 2012, John Branch, “Snow Fall : The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     She had no control of her body as she tumbled downhill. She did not know up from down. It was not unlike being cartwheeled in a relentlessly crashing wave.

   • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:

     The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you […] "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.

4. A security mechanism, policy, or procedure that can counter system attack, reduce risks, and resolve vulnerabilities; a safeguard or countermeasure.
5. (project management) A means of monitoring for, and triggering intervention in, activities that are not going according to plan.
6. A control group or control experiment.
7. A duplicate book, register, or account, kept to correct or check another account or register.
   • 2006, Henry Lunt, Fundamentals of Financial Accounting, page 297:

     “The entries in the control accounts reflect respectively the effect of the transactions on the value of Korrinna company’s receivables (sales ledger control account) and payables (purchase ledger control account.”

   • 2012, Harold Randall,David Hopkins, Cambridge International AS and A Level Accounting Textbook, page 78:

     "Make sure you enter the total of any credit balances in the sales ledger into the Sales Ledger Control Account and the total of any debit balances in the purchase ledger into the Purchase Ledger Control Account."

   • 2012, Aurora M.N., A textbook of Cost and Management Accounting, 10th Edition, page 12-3:

     “Wages Control Account: This account records wage transactions in aggregate. Postings are made from wage analysis sheet. This account is debited with gross wages (paid and accrued) and is closed by transfer of direct wages to work-in-progress and indirect wages to factory, administration and selling and distribution overheads control accounts as illustrated below:”

8. (graphical user interface) An interface element that a computer user interacts with, such as a window or a text box.

   Synonym: widget

9. (climatology) Any of the physical factors determining the climate of a place, such as latitude, distribution of land and water, altitude, exposure, prevailing winds, permanent high- or low-barometric-pressure areas, ocean currents, mountain barriers, soil, and vegetation.
10. (linguistics) A construction in which the understood subject of a given predicate is determined by an expression in context. See control.
11. (spiritualism, parapsychology) A spirit that takes possession of a psychic or medium and allows other spirits to communicate with the living.
    • 1926, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Land of Mist‎^[3]:

      "Ah, who are they? I wonder. Guides, controls, psychic entities of some kind. Who the agents of vengeance - or I should say justice - are, is really not essential."

12. (cycling, countable) A checkpoint along an audax route.
    • 2019, Emily Chappell, Where There's a Will

      […] the self-acknowledged stereotype of the audaxer as a socially awkward middle-aged man, […] carefully avoiding eye contact as a volunteer serves him his cup of tea and plate of baked beans in one of the draughty village halls that typically host audax controls.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• control in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• control in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• control on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Control in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Catalan control definition

Etymology

From French contrôle, attested from 1917.^[1]

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /konˈtɾɔl/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /kunˈtɾɔl/

Noun

control m (plural controls)

1. control
2. check, inspection
3. checkpoint
4. influence, authority

Derived terms

• controlar
• control de qualitat
• telecontrol

References

Further reading

• “control” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “control” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “control” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Portuguese control definition

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English control. The established pronunciation reflects a widespread mispronunciation of the English word. Doublet of controle and controlo.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkõ.tɾow/

Noun

control m (plural controls)

1. the control key on a computer keyboard

Derived terms

• control C control V

Romanian control definition

Etymology

From French contrôle.

Noun

control n (plural controale)

1. control

Declension

Spanish control definition

Etymology

From French contrôle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /konˈtɾol/, [kõn̪ˈt̪ɾol]
• Hyphenation: con‧trol

Noun

control m (plural controles)

1. control, or running of a business
2. control of a machine

   Synonyms: control remoto, mando, mando a distancia, telemando

3. control or emotional restraint, self-control
4. (Latin America) remote control

   Synonyms: control remoto, mando, mando a distancia

5. (video games, Latin America) controller, gamepad, joypad

   Synonym: mando

6. (medicine) checkup

Derived terms

Related terms

• controlar

Further reading

• “control”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014