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Glite Dictionary
👦 An older sibling 👁️ Controlling authority
big brother

big brother

8 4.8
A powerful government or company that watches people and their private information
  • noun
  • /bɪɡ ˈbrʌðər/
  • Literature
translation icon : Gran Hermano
  • You do not see the secret police or Big Brother in this plan anywhere.

So so Jim, this is like George Orwell's Big Brother is watching on steroids.

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Examples

  • We have a right to privacy, and this is just Big Brother monitoring us.

    Blog text (19)

  • So sleep easy at night, friends, because Big Brother is certainly watching.

  • The you know, Big Brother can only grow if it can feed on your data.

    Lex Fridman

  • Apple is a more authoritarian big brother than Google ever was or will be.

    Blog text (1)

  • To what extent will increasingly advanced surveillance technology be deployed to create Big Brother scenarios?

    Blog text (17)

  • National security issues are eroding everyone's rights, making the country a Big Brother state.

    Blog text (7)

  • On the negative side, there may be considerable reluctance to accept online auditing because of the "Big Brother" effect.

    Academic text (1999)

  • Many people feel uncomfortable knowing that Big Brother is monitoring their online activity.

  • In the novel, the government acts like a Big Brother, controlling every aspect of citizens' lives.

  • Critics argue that excessive surveillance creates a Big Brother society where privacy no longer exists.

Synonyms

police state
vsbig brother
30 7.5

A country where the government uses strict police control and spying to limit people's freedoms

watches and controls behaviour or private information across society rather than only by force
totalitarian regime
vsbig brother
  • Formal
6 8.3

A government that controls almost all parts of people's lives by force

focuses on watching and monitoring behaviour or private information rather than total control

Antonyms

freedom
∞ 1.0

The right to act, speak, or think as you want without being stopped

privacy
756 3.7

Freedom from being seen or watched by other people

How Controlling

police state
30 7.5
big brother
  • Literature
8 4.8
surveillance
  • Specialized
526 6.2
monitoring
130 3.2
oversight
152 4.0

Surface Forms

big brother singular
big brothers plural

Morphology

big + brother

This sense of 'big brother' is an idiomatic, culturally specific reference (from Orwell's Big Brother) meaning an intrusive, watching authority; that surveillance/control meaning is not derivable from the literal senses of 'big' and 'brother'. A B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would not reliably infer government monitoring or loss of privacy without prior exposure or cultural knowledge.

Etymology

Big brother comes from George Orwell's book '1984', where a large face on posters said 'Big Brother is watching you' to show a ruler who watches everyone's life. That's why big brother now means a powerful group or authority that 'watches' and 'controls' people's private information.