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control freak
noun
: a person whose behavior indicates a powerful need to control people or circumstances in everyday matters
Examples of control freak in a Sentence
My boss is a real control freak.
Recent Examples on the Web
Diana is an uptight control freak who also happens to be an artist with an unexpected baby after bedding an art school crush following a second date at Beneath the Planet of the Apes.
—Dalton Ross, EW.com, 26 Apr. 2023
The mom, Rebecca (Lucy Liu), is a first-class control freak, has become involved in some shady financial dealings, and dotes on her teenage son, Tyler (Eddy Maday), in a way that would make Freud’s head explode.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 20 Jan. 2024
In the way the film is framed — like a lesson to wannabe executioners from a master of his craft/control freak — Fincher almost seems to be encouraging identification with his coolly perfectionist yet amoral antihero.
—Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post, 25 Oct. 2023
But there were also hints back then of Westhead being a grudge-holding control freak, particularly in his treatment of aging former star forward Spencer Haywood.
—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 6 Aug. 2023
Financial abuse and control freak issues can go both ways.
—Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 15 May 2023
At a time when many of the biggest rock stars were ambivalent or tortured by fame and success, Billy Corgan became something of an arch-villain for being a careerist control freak, lampooned everywhere from Pavement songs to music magazine columns.
—Al Shipley, SPIN, 5 May 2023
Our mother was a loving control freak who did not have much of a sense of humor.
—Leo Dominguez, New York Times, 3 May 2023
Both are connected less by genre than by a control freak’s meticulousness and an uncanny sense for what truly haunts us deep, deep in the recesses of our psyche.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 11 Apr. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'control freak.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1970, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near control freak
Cite this Entry
“Control freak.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/control%20freak. Accessed 13 Jun. 2024.
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