WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
big′ broth′er, 
    1. an elder brother.
    2. Sociology(sometimes caps.) 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. Government(usually caps.) the head of a totalitarian regime that keeps its citizens under close surveillance.
    4. Government(usually caps.) the aggregate of officials and policy makers of a powerful and pervasive state.
    5. Show Business[CB Radio Slang.]a police officer or police car.
    • 1949 for defs. 3 and 4, the epithet of a dictator in German. Orwell's novel 1984 1860–65

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
Big Brother n
  1. a person, organization, etc, that exercises total dictatorial control
Etymology: 20th Century: after a character in George Orwell's novel 1984 (1949)
'big brother' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
big - reckon - Big Brotherism

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