[after Big Brother, the head of state in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four] an all-powerful, all-seeing, authoritarian ruler or government.
- 1949 G. Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four № 209: One could infer [...] the general structure of Oceanic society. At the apex of the pyramid comes Big Brother. Big Brother is infallible and all-powerful [...]. Nobody has ever seen Big Brother. He is a face on the hoardings, a voice on the telescreen.
- 1957 Economist (Oct.) № 208/2: The reporting to the Privy Council of any evidence discovered by this court of "misconduct in the administration of security organisations" would usefully discourage the Big Brother mentality.
- 1968 B. Bettelheim Saturday Evening Post (July 27) № 9/2: Neither a medieval absence of privacy nor a Big Brother's spying that leaves nothing unpublic will do.
- 2005 Times of India, Pune (June 24) № 5/5: Mumbai University is taking up the role of big brother and will soon tell students what to wear and what not to wear to college.
