cruise control

noun

|Updated on: 10 Aug 2018

Definition of cruise control

1 : an electronic device in a vehicle that controls the throttle so as to maintain a constant speed

2 : a relaxed and seemingly automatic pace that is easily maintained

See cruise control defined for English-language learners

Recent Examples of cruise control from the Web

Call it progress, the inevitable inexorable direction of taking control from the driver for the sake of automation, which incidentally, was first offered way back in the ’60s in the form of cruise control.

— robert duffer, chicagotribune.com, "The shift is on: Manual transmissions may be endangered but they're also beloved," 11 July 2018
And even after Kane seemed to put England into cruise control by drawing and then converting a penalty in the 57th minute, the Colombians fought — a bit too roughly for English tastes — for their World Cup life to the bitter end.

— andrew das, New York Times, "England Shakes Its Shootout Curse and Saves Its World Cup," 5 July 2018
Fiat Chrysler said the errant cruise control can be overpowered by continuous application of the brakes or by shifting into neutral and bringing the vehicle to a halt.

— chester dawson, WSJ, "Fiat Chrysler Recalls 5.3 Million Vehicles for Cruise Control Software Glitch," 25 May 2018
Fiat Chrysler vehicle owners are being warned not to use their vehicle’s cruise control for the time being after it was discovered that in rare cases the function cannot be turned off.

— jonathan sperling, Fortune, "Fiat Chrysler Is Recalling 4.8 Million Vehicles Over Cruise Control Flaw," 25 May 2018
The latest is a recall announced Friday involving nearly five million U.S. market vehicles to fix a cruise control software glitch.

— chester dawson, WSJ, "Fiat Chrysler Expected to Tell Investors What Its Future Looks Like Without CEO Marchionne," 26 May 2018
The cruise control flaw is far from the first issue to lead to a major FCA recall in North America.

— jonathan sperling, Fortune, "Fiat Chrysler Is Recalling 4.8 Million Vehicles Over Cruise Control Flaw," 25 May 2018
From there, Golden State simply pressed cruise control and no matter the lineup the Warriors mixed and matched with the rest of the way, the Rockets couldn’t keep up.

— brent zwerneman, Houston Chronicle, "Warriors' 'Hampton 5' lineup creates issues for Rockets," 14 May 2018
But most of the SUVs and minivans on this list also offer smart cruise control and automatic braking.

— mark maynard, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Best Family Cars of 2018: KBB.com," 3 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cruise control.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of cruise control

1960

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

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CRUISE CONTROL Defined for English Language Learners

cruise control

noun

Definition of cruise control for English Language Learners

: a device in a vehicle that a driver turns on to make the vehicle continue at whatever speed the driver has chosen
: a relaxed pace that does not require a lot of effort