The party expects to gain control of the council in the next election.

control​

1 [uncountable] the power to make decisions about how a country, an area, an organization, etc. is run

• control of somebody/something The party expects to gain control of the council in the next election.

Source: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/control_1?q=Control

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Can you feel that "control of the council" goes together?
Is "control of the council" meant to be a noun phrase?

I don't know the terminology but it should be broken down like this:

The party expects to gain control ...
Control of what?
Of the council

Just because "control of somebody/something" are words given together in a dictionary definition, you can't assume they are a set phrase. In the example above, it's just worded that way because those are the words in the example sentence. They could just have easily put "gain control of somebody/something" and "lose control of somebody/something" as separate entries.

emsr2d2 said:

Just because "control of somebody/something" are words given together in a dictionary definition, you can't assume they are a set phrase. In the example above, it's just worded that way because those are the words in the example sentence. They could just have easily put "gain control of somebody/something" and "lose control of somebody/something" as separate entries.

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What meaning does "just" add to the sentence?

emsr2d2 meant to say:

They could have just as easily put ...

It's a comparative phrase, equivalent to 'equally easily'.

jutfrank said:

emsr2d2 meant to say:

They could have just as easily put ...

It's a comparative phrase, equivalent to 'equally easily'.

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Thanks for explaining my typo. Had I got it right the first time, I would have used a slightly different word order:

They could just as easily have put ...

emsr2d2 said:

Just because "control of somebody/something" are words given together in a dictionary definition, you can't assume they are a set phrase. In the example above, it's just worded that way because those are the words in the example sentence. They could just as easily have put "gain control of somebody/something" and "lose control of somebody/something" as separate entries.

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Is the red part compared to the blue part?

Are you asking if "just as easily as" is a form of comparison?

emsr2d2 said:

Are you asking if "just as easily as" is a form of comparison?

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Yes, I am.

GoldfishLord said:

Is the red part compared to the blue part?

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No.

The comparison is between putting 'gain control of somebody/something' and 'lose control of somebody/something' (as two separate entries) and putting 'control of somebody/something' (as a single entry).

These two approaches were equally easy.