| Main Entry: | out of control |
| Part of Speech: | adj |
| Definition: | not under management or direction; unmanageable or wild |
out of control
Also, out of hand. No longer under management, direction, or regulation; unmanageable or unruly. For example, Housing costs are out of control, or The children were getting out of hand again. The first term uses control in the sense of "restraint," a usage dating from the late 1500s; the variant uses hand in the sense of "power" or "authority," and dates from the late 1800s.