control

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
control/kənˈtrəʊl/

▶noun

• 1 the power to influence people's behaviour or the course of events.

  ■ the restriction of an activity, tendency, or phenomenon.

• 2 a device by which a machine is regulated: the volume control.

• 3 a person or thing used as a standard of comparison for checking the results of a survey or experiment.

• 4 a member of an intelligence organization who personally directs the activities of a spy.

• 5 Bridge a high card that will prevent the opponents from establishing a particular suit.

▶verb (controls, controlling, controlled)

• 1 have control or command of.

  ■ regulate.

• 2 (as adj. controlled) (of a drug) restricted by law in respect of use and possession.

• 3 (control for) take into account (an extraneous factor that might affect the results of an experiment).

– phrases
in control able to direct a situation, person, or activity.
out of control no longer able to be managed.
under control (of a danger or emergency) being dealt with or contained successfully.

– derivatives
controllability noun,
controllable adjective,
controllably adverb,
controller noun,
controllership noun.

– origin ME (in the sense ‘verify accounts’): from Anglo-Norman Fr. contreroller ‘keep a copy of a roll of accounts’, from med. L. contrarotulare, from contrarotulus ‘copy of a roll’, from contra- ‘against’ + rotulus ‘a roll’.