big brother en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (US) audio
Meanings
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(childish, often) A sibling's older brother.
If you don't give me back my toys I'll tell my big brother!
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(figuratively) Something 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:
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(figuratively) early 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:
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(alt-of, alternative) Alternative form of Big Brother.
alt of Big Brother
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| big brothers | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
Big Brotherish · big-brotherism · big-brotherly · Big Brother · Big Brotherism · big-brotherish · big-brotherliness · big brotherism