control

Alternative forms

• controll, controul (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): /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹoʊl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: con‧trol

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, 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.

Noun

control (countable and uncountable, plural controls)

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

   The government has complete control over the situation.

2. A separate group or subject in an experiment against which the results are compared where the primary variable is low or non-existent.
3. The method and means of governing the performance of any apparatus, machine or system, such as a lever, handle or button.
4. 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:

     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.

5. A security mechanism, policy, or procedure that can counter system attack, reduce risks, and resolve vulnerabilities; a safeguard or countermeasure.
6. (project management) A means of monitoring for, and triggering intervention in, activities that are not going according to plan.
7. A duplicate book, register, or account, kept to correct or check another account or register.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)

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.

Further reading

• control in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• control in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• control on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Control in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

Etymology

From French contrôle.

Noun

control m (plural controls)

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /konˈtɾol/, [kõn̪ˈt̪ɾol]

Noun

control m (plural controles)

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

   Synonym: mando

3. control or emotional restraint, self-control
4. remote control

   Synonyms: control remoto, mando

5. (medicine) checkup

Further reading

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