1984-ish

comparative more 1984-ish · superlative most 1984-ish · alternative 1984ish

1. informalResembling or pertaining to a totalitarian society, especially one characterised by intensive surveillance of the population.First known use 20th c.

   A truly 1984-ish paradox. What had gone down the memory hole?

   2011, Charles Forbin, The Diaries of Ay'esha: Trapped and Trained, page 171

   3 more examples

   I have no idea what this 1984-ish-sounding organization actually does, though I suspect it has something to do with industrial processes.

   2000, G. R. Evans, Martyn Percy, Managing the Church?: Order and Organization in a Secular Age, page 128

   The poems were then posted on a Library of Congress website, and high school principals were encouraged in the slightly 1984-ish task of reading them over their loud speakers each morning at the beginning of the school day.

   2007, Jerome Sala, What if someone were listening? Contemporary poetry and the problem of popularity, page 140

   All these technologies sound a bit ominous and 1984-ish when taken out of context.

   2011, John E.B. Myers, The APSAC Handbook on Child Maltreatment, page viii

   Synonyms: 1984-esque, Orwellesque, Orwellian