big brother

noun

an elder brother.

( sometimes initial capital letters ) a man who individually or as a member of an organized group undertakes to sponsor or assist a boy in need of help or guidance.

( usually initial capital letters ) the head of a totalitarian regime that keeps its citizens under close surveillance.

( usually initial capital letters ) the aggregate of officials and policy makers of a powerful and pervasive state.

Citizens Band Radio Slang. a police officer or police car.

Origin:
1860–65; 1949 for defs 3 and 4, the epithet of a dictator in G. Orwell's novel 1984

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To Big Brother

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Big Brother is always a great word to know.

So is callithumpian. Does it mean:

a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

Big Brother

—n
1.	a person, organization, etc, that exercises total dictatorial control
2.	a television gameshow format in which a small number of people living in accommodation sealed off from the outside world are constantly monitored by TV cameras. Viewers vote each week to expel a person from the group until there is only one person left, who wins a cash prize

[C20: after a character in George Orwell's novel 1984 (1949)]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

Big Brother

"ubiquitous and repressive but apparently benevolent authority" first recorded 1949, from George Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four."

Slang Dictionary

big brother definition

n.
a personification of the totalitarian state. (From George Orwell's 1984.) : Big brother has changed the tax laws again.
n.
someone who personifies the totalitarian state: the police, parents, teachers. : Big brother says the paper is due tomorrow, or else.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Matching Quote

"To my big brother George—the richest man in town."

-Frances Goodrich

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