controller

plural controllers

1. One who controls something.

   The great controller of our fate / Deigned to be man, and lived in low estate.

   1700, John Dryden, transl., The Wife of Bath, Her Tale

   Synonyms: administrator, chief, foreman, head, head man, organizer, overseer, superintendent

2. businessAny electric or mechanical device for controlling a circuit or system.

   Nothing more can be squeezed out of the motive power unit once the master controller has been moved to full on.

   1963 February, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Modern Railways, page 115

3. businessThe chief accounting officer which audits, and manages the financial affairs of a company or government; a comptroller.
4. computer hardwareA mechanism that controls or regulates the operation of a machine, especially a peripheral device in a computer.

   Synonyms: driver

5. video gamesA hardware device designed to allow the user to play video games.

   I'm collecting player's names for a school project. You know, players just like you! That's right, you--the one holding the controller. Would you register your name, please?

   1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System

   Synonyms: game controller

6. nauticalAn iron block, usually bolted to a ship's deck, for controlling the running out of a chain cable. The links of the cable tend to drop into hollows in the block, and thus hold fast until disengaged.
7. espionageThe person who supervises and handles communication with an agent in the field.
8. human sciencesThe subject of a control verb. See Control (linguistics)

   1 more example

   The choice of controller is determined by the matrix verb. If, as in (30b) and (3la), the main verb does not subcategorize for an OBJ, then the controller is the matrix SUBJ. In this case the complement clause is interpreted as having the same subject as the main clause. If the main verb does take an OBJ, the controller is the matrix patient.

   2004, Paul K. Kroeger, Analyzing Syntax: A Lexical-Functional Approach, Cambridge University Press (hardback) (paperback), chapter 5.4, 117

9. architectureIn software applications using the model-view-controller design pattern, the part or parts of the application that treat input and output, forming an interface between models and views.