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vocabulary
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Big Brother
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

Big Brother as in:  Big Brother is watching you.

Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • Enrique—envisioning perhaps the likelihood of my having to go into what he called The System—had taken me to be photographed for it shortly after my mother died; and though I'd resented it at the time, Big Brother's far-reaching claw ("Wow, your very own bar code," Andy had said, looking at it curiously), now I was thankful he'd had the foresight to carry me downtown and register me like a second-hand motor vehicle.  (source)
  • "It's them. They're doing it." "Who?" She glanced to either side. "The Man, man. Big Brother. The suits."  (source)
    Big Brother = an organization that attempts to exercise total control over people and that invades their privacy to do so
  • If our society ever opted for Orwell's Big Brother approach, the instrument of choice for oppression would have to be the credit wake.  (source)
    Big Brother = (of an) organization that attempts to exercise total control over people and that invades their privacy to do so
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  • "Electronic trails are bad: Don't use a cell phone that's registered to you..." "Our clients aren't exactly Big Brother types," she said.  (source)
    Big Brother = (of an) organization that comprehensively spies on people
  • But after a few months, when the big brother upstairs turned out to be Big Brother, she got on her bicycle and rode through the neighborhood of her high school days until she spotted an apartment with fresh-painted walls and masking tape on the windows.  (source)
    Big Brother = an organization that attempts to exercise total control over people and that invades their privacy to do so
  • Big Brother really did have all the info.  (source)
    Big Brother = (of an) organization that comprehensively spies on people
  • "What, you're all-knowing and all-seeing now?" I asked. "Who are you, Big Brother?"  (source)
  • Long ago, in his youth, when he'd been a "troubled teen," as he told her without elaboration, a social worker at his school had signed him up for the Big Brother program, and he'd always felt that his big brother—his mentor, he calls him—kept him on track.  (source)
    Big Brother = an organization that matches older, wiser men with boys who will benefit from mentorship
  • Nut jobs are exactly the kind of people who will have survived. People who saw Big Brother when he wasn't there. People who suspected the rest of humanity before the rest of humanity turned dangerous. People with hiding places ready.  (source)
    Big Brother = (of an) organization that attempts to exercise total control over people and that invades their privacy to do so
  • "I heard you call him." I raised my eyebrows. "You are like Big Brother."  (source)
    Big Brother = (of an) organization that comprehensively spies on people
  • Maybe I should just go home in the middle of the day, even if Big Brother was watching.  (source)
    Big Brother = a reference to George Orwell's depiction of "Big Brother" in the novel, 1984 where "Big Brother" (an authoritarian government) knew all about people's lives
  • It's like the school equivalent of watching Big Brother, I get to eavesdrop on the drama and it's not mentally taxing in the least.  (source)
    Big Brother = a reference to George Orwell's depiction of "Big Brother" in the novel, 1984 where "Big Brother" knew all about people's lives
  • BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran.  (source)
    BIG BROTHER = an organization that attempts to exercise total control over people and that invades their privacy to do so
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common meaning

Show 3 with this contextual meaning
  • "You're welcome," he says, just like his big brother.  (source)
    big brother = an older, bigger brother
  • Instead, my big brother's all-caps texts appear on the screen.  (source)
  • If you want to see something funny, it's a tough hood sticking his tongue out at his big brother.  (source)
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  • We want to know if you are one of us, if your cousin knows our cousin, if your little sister went to school with our big brother, if you go to the same Baptist church as our ex-boss.  (source)
    big brother = an older, bigger brother
  • I realized ...I guess I realized I had to be a big brother, you know?  (source)
  • Lotte imagined her son must see Martin as the big brother he had always wished for.  (source)
  • Luke was my big brother; I thought he would know what to do, so I grabbed his shoulders and shook him, hard.  (source)
  • There are worse things than being a Third, worse things than a big brother who can't make up his mind whether to be a human being or a jackal.  (source)
  • Tony wanted the best for Wes, but he still felt that part of his mission as a big brother was to toughen him up for the battles Tony knew Wes would have to fight as he got older.  (source)
  • "Wow," said the brothers, gazing up at their big brother.  (source)
  • I was sorry to see my big brother leave, but it was a relief also.  (source)
  • He was, after all, the big brother, and Hana didn't have a better idea.  (source)
  • The little one looked at his big brother to see why I was asking all this stuff.  (source)
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