big brother

plural big brothers

1. childishoftenA sibling's older brother.

   If you don't give me back my toys I'll tell my big brother!

2. figurativelySomething that is bigger in comparison.

   While the little MTU Vee-12s in the Class 800 bi-mode generating units have lower overall emissions than their big brothers in the Class 43 IC125 power cars, in the case of CO₂, when you burn a litre of diesel fuel you get 2.8kg of CO₂. [a possible error in the original text]

   2019 October, Roger Ford, “WCP award - victory for DfT reactionaries”, in Modern Railways, page 32

3. figurativelyearly mobile phones (in China)

   Due to the size of Big Brother and the fact that people who used it were mostly big brothers in the business world, this thing quickly became a status symbol.

   2018 December, “Chinese Terminology: Big Brother”, in CGTN

4. alternativeAlternative form of Big Brother.

plural Big Brothers · alternative big brother

1. Unwarranted, invasive, and discreet surveillance, especially of a people by its government.

   Some people are worried about marketing calls at dinnertime or junk mail or spam, while others are more concerned about Big Brother.

   2002, Lorrie Faith Cranor, Web privacy with P3P, page 12

   1 more example

   When one mentions the concepts of identity and governance in the same breath, a virtually autonomic response from many is the concern that a governmental big brother will soon be looking over their shoulders.

   2008, Bertrand du Castel, Timothy M. Jurgensen Computer Theology, page 314

2. Any omnipresent authority or figurehead representing oppressive control.

   Holonym: the System

   2 more examples

   In the late 1960s and early 1970s, at the height of public concern over the emergence of a Big Brother society, privacy activism shared features in common with some of the hard-line environmental campaigns of the 1990s.

   1999, Rebecca A. Grant, Colin John Bennett, Visions of privacy: policy choices for the digital age, page 244

   When the agencies of the federal government spied on the political activities of US citizens, they moved into the grey area between concern with national security and a Big Brother system that violated constitutional protections.

   2003, Rodney Carlisle, Rodney P. Carlisle, Complete idiot's guide to spies and espionage, page 195