big brother

noun
1.
an elder brother.
2.
(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.
3.
(usually initial capital letters) the head of a totalitarian regime that keeps its citizens under close surveillance.
4.
(usually initial capital letters) the aggregate of officials and policy makers of a powerful and pervasive state.
5.
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
British Dictionary definitions for big brother

Big Brother

noun
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
Word Origin
C20: after a character in George Orwell's novel 1984 (1949)
Word Origin and History for big brother

Big Brother

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

Slang definitions & phrases for big brother

Big Brother

noun phrase
  1. The faceless and ruthless power of the totalitarian or ureaucrati state personified (1949+)
  2. The tracking radar used by ground controllers (1970s+ Airline)

[Big brother, ''protector,'' is attested fr at least the 1860s; first sense fr its use by George Orwell in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four; second sense quite benign]