control

control (kənˈtrəʊl)
—vb , -trols, -trolling, -trolled
1.	to command, direct, or rule: to control a country
2.	to check, limit, curb, or regulate; restrain: to control one's emotions; to control a fire
3.	to regulate or operate (a machine)
4.	to verify (a scientific experiment) by conducting a parallel experiment in which the variable being investigated is held constant or is compared with a standard
5.	a.  to regulate (financial affairs)
	b.  to examine and verify (financial accounts)
6.	to restrict or regulate the authorized supply of (certain substances, such as drugs)
—n
7.	power to direct or determine: under control; out of control
8.	a means of regulation or restraint; curb; check: a frontier control
9.	(often plural) a device or mechanism for operating a car, aircraft, etc
10.	a standard of comparison used in a statistical analysis or scientific experiment
11.	a.  a device that regulates the operation of a machine. A dynamic control is one that incorporates a governor so that it responds to the output of the machine it regulates
	b.  (as modifier): control panel; control room
12.	spiritualism an agency believed to assist the medium in a séance
13.	Also called: control mark a letter, or letter and number, printed on a sheet of postage stamps, indicating authenticity, date, and series of issue
14.	one of a number of checkpoints on a car rally, orienteering course, etc, where competitors check in and their time, performance, etc, is recorded
[C15: from Old French conteroller to regulate, from contrerolle duplicate register, system of checking, from contre-counter- + rolleroll]
con'trollable
—adj
controlla'bility
—n
con'trollableness
—n
con'trollably
—adv

control

checking accounts by a duplicate register. Sense of "dominate, direct" is c.1450. Related: Controllable (1570s); controlled (1580s; of rent, from c.1930); controlling (1520s). Control group in scientific experiments is attested from 1952 (from a sense of control attested since 1875). Control freak is late 1960s slang.

control con·trol (kən-trōl')
v. con·trolled, con·trol·ling, con·trols

1. To verify or regulate a scientific experiment by conducting a parallel experiment or by comparing with another standard.

2. To hold in restraint; check.

n.

1. A standard of comparison for checking or verifying the results of an experiment.

2. An individual or group used as a standard of comparison in a control experiment.

control   (kən-trōl')  Pronunciation Key  A standard of comparison for checking or verifying the results of an experiment. In an experiment to test the effectiveness of a new drug, for example, one group of subjects (the control group) receives an inactive substance or placebo , while a comparison group receives the drug being tested.

control definition

character
(Or "ctrl", "^") One (or a pair) of modifier keys found on all modern keyboards. If the control key is held down while pressing and releasing certain other keys then a "control character" is generated, e.g. holding control and hitting "A" generates control-A (ASCII code 1). The ASCII code for the control character is generally 64 less than that for the unmodified character.
The control key does not generate any character on its own but most modern keyboards and operating systems allow a program to tell whether each of the individual keys on the keyboard (including modifier keys) is pressed at any time.
Control characters mostly have some kind of "non-printing" effect on the output such as ringing the bell (Control-G) or advancing to the next line (Control-J). Most have alternative names suggesting these functions (Bell, Line Feed, etc.).
See ASCII character table.
(1997-07-10)

control

see out of control; spin control.