"big brother" meaning in English

See big brother in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-big brother.wav Forms: big brothers [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} big brother (plural big brothers)
  1. (often childish) A sibling's older brother. Tags: childish, often
    Sense id: en-big_brother-en-noun-NN~6eWj5
  2. (figurative) Something that is bigger in comparison. Tags: figuratively
    Sense id: en-big_brother-en-noun-zrUTHxbf
  3. (figurative) early mobile phones (in China) Tags: figuratively Categories (topical): Male family members, Siblings
    Sense id: en-big_brother-en-noun-mHEJRfkE Disambiguation of Male family members: 22 23 32 23 Disambiguation of Siblings: 21 28 36 16 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 3 37 48 12 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 2 35 44 19 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 1 37 45 17
  4. Alternative form of Big Brother Tags: alt-of, alternative Alternative form of: Big Brother Related terms: big sister, little brother, little sister
    Sense id: en-big_brother-en-noun-UNSGvQ7l

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "big brothers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "big brother (plural big brothers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "If you don't give me back my toys I'll tell my big brother!",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A sibling's older brother."
      ],
      "id": "en-big_brother-en-noun-NN~6eWj5",
      "links": [
        [
          "childish",
          "childish"
        ],
        [
          "sibling",
          "sibling"
        ],
        [
          "brother",
          "brother"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(often childish) A sibling's older brother."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "childish",
        "often"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2019 October, Roger Ford, “WCP award - victory for DfT reactionaries”, in Modern Railways, page 32:",
          "text": "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]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something that is bigger in comparison."
      ],
      "id": "en-big_brother-en-noun-zrUTHxbf",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) Something that is bigger in comparison."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "3 37 48 12",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "2 35 44 19",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "1 37 45 17",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "22 23 32 23",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Male family members",
          "orig": "en:Male family members",
          "parents": [
            "Family members",
            "Male people",
            "Family",
            "Male",
            "People",
            "Gender",
            "Human",
            "Biology",
            "Psychology",
            "Sociology",
            "All topics",
            "Sciences",
            "Social sciences",
            "Fundamental",
            "Society"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "21 28 36 16",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Siblings",
          "orig": "en:Siblings",
          "parents": [
            "Family members",
            "Family",
            "People",
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2018 December, “Chinese Terminology: Big Brother”, in CGTN:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "early mobile phones (in China)"
      ],
      "id": "en-big_brother-en-noun-mHEJRfkE",
      "links": [
        [
          "mobile phone",
          "mobile phone"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) early mobile phones (in China)"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    },
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "Big Brother"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of Big Brother"
      ],
      "id": "en-big_brother-en-noun-UNSGvQ7l",
      "links": [
        [
          "Big Brother",
          "Big Brother#English"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "25 5 0 70",
          "word": "big sister"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "25 5 0 70",
          "word": "little brother"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "25 5 0 70",
          "word": "little sister"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-big brother.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7f/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-big_brother.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-big_brother.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7f/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-big_brother.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-big_brother.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "big brother"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "en:Male family members",
    "en:Siblings"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "big brothers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "big brother (plural big brothers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "big sister"
    },
    {
      "word": "little brother"
    },
    {
      "word": "little sister"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English childish terms",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "If you don't give me back my toys I'll tell my big brother!",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A sibling's older brother."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "childish",
          "childish"
        ],
        [
          "sibling",
          "sibling"
        ],
        [
          "brother",
          "brother"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(often childish) A sibling's older brother."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "childish",
        "often"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2019 October, Roger Ford, “WCP award - victory for DfT reactionaries”, in Modern Railways, page 32:",
          "text": "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]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something that is bigger in comparison."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) Something that is bigger in comparison."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2018 December, “Chinese Terminology: Big Brother”, in CGTN:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "early mobile phones (in China)"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "mobile phone",
          "mobile phone"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) early mobile phones (in China)"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    },
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "Big Brother"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of Big Brother"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Big Brother",
          "Big Brother#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-big brother.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7f/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-big_brother.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-big_brother.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7f/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-big_brother.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-big_brother.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "big brother"
}

Download raw JSONL data for big brother meaning in English (2.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.