controlcontrol2 verb (controlled, controlling) [transitiveT]1to have the power to make someone or something do what you wantU.S. offices of foreign banks now control roughly a quarter of U.S. banking assets.
The government controls the production and distribution of all national newspapers.
2to limit something or prevent it from increasing too muchTo help control costs, the company cut salaries by between 2% and 25% last month.
Romania will control skyrocketing food prices by setting ceilings for items such as meat.
new measures to control inflation
3to check that something is as it should beCheckers control the quality of products as they come off the production line.
4FINANCE to own sharesMr Kahn now controls 854,236 common shares, or about 40% of Mercury’s stock.
5FINANCE to own more than half the shares of a company, or enough shares to decide how the company should be managedThe Agnelli family controls the car group through a variety of holding companies.
6MARKETING if a company or product controls a particular part of a market, its products account for a large amount of the sales in that marketDe Beers controls 80% of the rough, uncut diamond market.