Forms: 6 controlle, 6–7 controll, -oule, -ole, 7 comptrol(e, 7–9 controul, 8– control. [perh. a. F. contrôle, earlier contrerolle ‘the copie of a roll (of account, etc.), a paralell of the same qualitie and content with th’ originall; also, a controlling or ouerseeing’ (Cotgr.), corresp. to med.L. contrārotulus, f. contrā against, counter (cf. CONTRA- 3) + rotulus ROLL. But, as the sb. appears only about 1600 in Eng., and app. not in the original literal sense, but only as a noun of action, it was probably then formed immediately from the verb. A few examples of COUNTER-ROLL (q.v.) directly represent the Fr.
Johnson (copied in later Dicts.) has as first sense, but without quotation, ‘A register or account kept by another officer, that each may be examined by the other.’ This J. retained from Bailey’s folio, where it was founded on the statement in Kersey’s Phillips, 1706, ‘properly, a Book, or Register, in which a Roll is kept of other Registers.’ But this is merely an etymological remark, applicable to med.L. contrarotulus, and OF. contrerolle; there is no evidence that control was ever so used in Eng.: see COUNTER-ROLL.]
1. The fact of controlling, or of checking and directing action; the function or power of directing and regulating; domination, command, sway.
Board of Control: a board of six members established by Pitt in 1784 for the supervision of the East India Company in the government of British India; abolished in 1858.
Control Department: a former department of the British army, now subdivided into the departments of Commissariat and Transport; the name was abolished in 1875.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., II. i. 19. The winged fowles Are their males subiects, and at their controules. Ibid. (1601), Twel. N., II. v. 74. Quenching my familiar smile with an austere regard of controll.
1788. Priestley, Lect. Hist., V. lxii. 498. The only advantage that can accrue from conquering a nation is … the controul of its commerce.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., I. 107. Over no nation does the press hold a more absolute control than over the people of America.
1886. Law Times, LXXXI. 59/2. Permitting offensive smells to emanate from certain drains under their control.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, I. 497. Correspondence between the Board of Controul and the Crown.
1853. Bright, Sp. India, 2 June (1876), 2. The President of the Board of Control.
2. Restraint, check. Without control: unrestrainedly, freely.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., III. v. 84. Where his raging eye … Without controll, lusted to make a prey.
1649. Blithe, Eng. Improv. Impr. (1652), 122. This … bruising of the Stalk doth give a kind of Check or Comptrole unto the Sappe.
1715–20. Pope, Iliad, I. 108. Speak what thou know’st, and speak without controul.
1768. Beattie, Minstr., II. xlvi. Lust that defies controul.
1837. Thirlwall, Greece, IV. xxx. 164. His operations were subject to so little controul, that he was able to insert forgeries.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 441. Calmness … and control of the passions.
3. A method or means of restraint; a check.
1752. Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), I. 14. The particular checks and controuls provided by the constitution.
1879. Gladstone, Glean., III. i. 19. The essential conditions of civil society may require an universal controul, or veto.
b. In mod. scientific use: A standard of comparison used to check the inferences deduced from an experiment, by application of the ‘Method of Difference.’ Often attrib. as in control-experiment, a test experiment devised with this end in view.
1875. Darwin, Insectiv. Pl., xvii. 413. Four bladders were first tried as a control experiment.
1880. C. & F. Darwin, Movem. Pl., 162. Radicles without any attached squares, which served as standards of comparison or controls.
1890. Nature, 11 Dec., 122. Control mice died of tetanus within 48 hours.
4. A person who acts as a check; a controller.
1786. Hist. Europe, in Ann. Reg., 137/1. They were always about him, as checks or controuls upon his conduct.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 64. Men formed to be instruments, not controls.
1855. Milman, Lat. Chr., V. IX. vii. 371. He could not be a resident rival and control upon the Doge.
1884. Stuart C. Cumberland, in Pall Mall G., 31 Dec., 2/2. These ‘controls’—these ‘astral bodies,’ or whatever they are called.
1885. R. F. Burton, in Academy, 11 July, 20/1. He appeared by no means surprised when I told him he was a rank Spiritualist, a tool in the hands of his Controul.
5. Comb. Control-experiment: see 3 b.
