How to Use control in a Sentence

control

1 of 2 verb
  • The police controlled the crowd.
  • The small boy could not control the big dog.
  • The parents could not control their child.
  • The rebel army now controls nearly half the country.
  • She struggled to control the cart as it rolled before her down the steep, bumpy road.
  • The lights on stage are controlled by this computer.
  • He controlled the volume by turning the radio's knob.
  • One country controls the whole island.
  • Her family controls the business.
  • A thermostat controls the room's temperature.
  • Xavier wants to be the tougher team and control the space around the basket.
    Adam Baum, Cincinnati.com, 28 Dec. 2019
  • The best way to control the insect is in the crawler stage when the scale first hatch.
    oregonlive, 27 Mar. 2022
  • Cincinnati controlled large swaths of the field in the second half.
    Pat Brennan, Cincinnati.com, 14 Sep. 2019
  • Preet, one thing this judge could control is the timing of the case.
    ABC News, 11 June 2023
  • Joe Haden could not control the ball on his way to the ground.
    Childs Walker, baltimoresun.com, 2 Nov. 2020
  • This way, teams control who else can join their group on the app.
    Dallas News, 20 July 2021
  • The thing that keeps me coming back is the dial that controls it all.
    Brent Rose, The Verge, 20 Nov. 2018
  • The long and short of it is that this country has failed badly to control the spread of the virus.
    Bruce Y. Lee, Forbes, 19 Sep. 2021
  • The best of the best even seem capable of controlling time.
    Kurt Streeter, New York Times, 6 June 2023
  • The Browns used their run game to control the game and ran out the clock in the fourth quarter.
    Charlie Goldsmith, The Enquirer, 3 Nov. 2021
  • His sisters have used them to control him and steal his food.
    Kaitlyn Bancroft, The Salt Lake Tribune, 9 Oct. 2021
  • What about the people who control which voices get heard in the first place?
    Annabel Gutterman, Time, 12 May 2021
  • That could damage the blades and the devices that control them, or throw a blade.
    Popular Mechanics Editors, Popular Mechanics, 20 June 2018
  • Aaron was thick, stocky and not able to fully control his body.
    Tyler Tachman, The Indianapolis Star, 21 Sep. 2022
  • How does this not take away a woman's right to control her own body?
    NBC News, 8 May 2022
  • Railroads are more profitable than the banks that control them.
    Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 16 Sep. 2022
  • But these facts do not control the motion before the court.
    Mary Cadden, USA TODAY, 1 July 2020
  • There are some things very few people can control, and one of them is hair type.
    Michael Pollick, chicagotribune.com, 9 Oct. 2020
  • Officers at one point used tear gas to try to control them.
    Fox News, 27 Nov. 2020
  • There are certain guys who can control their plus stuff.
    BostonGlobe.com, 15 May 2021
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control

2 of 2 noun
  • The soccer player showed good control of the ball.
  • He took control of the family farm.
  • The tribes fought for control over the territory.
  • He lost all muscle control in his left arm.
  • The farmer used an organic pest control on his crops.
  • She hired an accountant to take control of her money.
  • To cut down on competition, the government passed price controls on prescription drugs.
  • The city wanted local control of education.
  • The President wants stricter controls on immigration.
  • Half of the train rolled out of control away from the other half.
    Dan Schwartz, Fortune, 7 Apr. 2023
  • By the time the air tankers arrived the next day, the blaze was out of control.
    Tom Stienstra, SFChronicle.com, 4 July 2019
  • In fact, the end of the movie is about the fight for control of the Oasis.
    Kevin Krewell, Forbes, 27 Jan. 2022
  • Drunk Elephant puts the control in the hands of the customer.
    Madison Yauger, Peoplemag, 30 Sep. 2022
  • Hand pulling or digging seedlings is the best method of control.
    Melinda Myers, Journal Sentinel, 12 Jan. 2024
  • There is a lot at play when discussing the control of oil prices.
    Q.ai - Powering A Personal Wealth Movement, Forbes, 5 Oct. 2022
  • And with that speed, with that control, and making the right plays?
    Conor Ryan, BostonGlobe.com, 24 Apr. 2023
  • It might be said that the party would lose control of its brand.
    Joseph O’Neill, The New York Review of Books, 29 Apr. 2020
  • The fire crews took over an hour to gain control of the flames, James said.
    Jane Florance, The Arizona Republic, 10 Mar. 2022
  • The second half was a battle for control of the midfield.
    Bay Area News Group, The Mercury News, 11 Sep. 2019
  • The team sprayed a third group of trees with distilled water as a control.
    Katie Camero, Science | AAAS, 5 Aug. 2019
  • The blooms occur when colonies of algae grow out of control.
    Doug Criss, CNN, 8 July 2019
  • It is not known which pilot was in control of the aircraft at the time of the deadly crash.
    Liz Friden, Fox News, 15 Aug. 2022
  • Still the project would remain under the city’s control.
    Brian Maffly, The Salt Lake Tribune, 16 May 2022
  • Fire crews got the fire under control within a few hours.
    CBS News, 27 May 2021
  • The scandal forced him to abandon a bid to take control of Sky.
    Oliver Darcy, CNN, 21 Sep. 2023
  • Their lives spiraled out of control, through hell and back.
    oregonlive.com, 5 July 2019
  • Democrats would dearly love to wrest control of those seats.
    Anthony Man, Sun-Sentinel.com, 23 June 2018
  • The control remained mold-less, while the piece touched with clean hands appeared the same.
    Fox News, 18 Dec. 2019
  • The police will obey orders, and the regime will remain in control.
    Andrew J. Nathan, WSJ, 2 Dec. 2022
  • Through no fault of their own, their budgets are out of control and are about to hit the buffers.
    The Economist, 18 June 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'control.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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